We Fight Together
by cand13
Summary: Sequel to: Not Everyday is a Good Day, Live Anyway. Follow Luffy's adventure as he goes towards his dream of being the Pirate King. Canon.
1. Chapter 1

**Sequel to Not Everyday is a Good Day, Live Anyway.**

Chapter 1

"Over there, Garp," says a fisherman as he points to the unknown ship at the dock. "It wasn't there before we turned in last night."

As soon as Garp caught sight of the ship, he grinned. "Go on about your business. I'll handle this," he tells the group of fishermen that came to get him.

"Are you sure?" one asks nervously. "What if it's a pirate raid? I mean, I know not all pirates are bad and all. Shanks was nice enough, but this one came without a flag. The ship may be small, but we weren't sure what kind of people are on board. They could be slavers wanting to take our women and children."

"They're pirates all right, but there's nothing to worry about," Garp says as he turns around and starts to walk towards the village. "I just need to get Makino."

The fishermen looked at Garp as if he were crazy. What could a simple barmaid do? Well, if the Vice-Admiral says there's nothing to worry about, then they'll just have to trust him. They were but simple fishermen, not fighters. They're sure the Marine Hero could handle a small ship of pirates if it comes down to it. Just in case, they'll just fish a little closer to land to lend a hand if need to.

-*/

A woman with dark green hair boards the ship at Garp's insistence. She's not even sure why the Marine told her to get on the ship and inspect it for him, but she did it anyway, knowing that Garp is out there in case things goes wrong.

Opening the door to the cabin, leaving it open, she opens another door that leads to what looks like the kitchen. Seeing nothing, she walks back out and opens another door. This one has a desk with a lamp, a hammock, and three wanted posters on the wall.

Her eyes went straight to the wanted posters. They were the same posters she has hanging in her bar. Two are of the boys who lived with Dadan before they mysteriously disappeared years ago.

She'd heard Garp had continued searching for them, even when his boss told him to let it go. The boys were believed to be dead for the longest time. That was until the man came back with news that the boys were alive and living somewhere safe. He wouldn't tell them where they were. Dadan and the rest of the bandits even argued with the Marine to take them to them so they could see for themselves.

Garp finally let out that the boys were living with the Whitebeard pirates and that their captain knew of the boys' background. The thought of the strongest man in the world dissuaded the bandit from wanting to see the boys. Though Dadan swore that if she finds out that anything happened to the boys, she'd sail out there herself to kill the man, strongest or not.

The young woman then finally moves on to the third poster. A finger makes its way to the face on the poster. The picture was of a young girl dancing in a simple dress, yet, she recognizes the name under the photo. It's the face of a boy that she would have cared for if the boy had never been taken on his way to this island as a babe. A warm smile appears on her face as she notices how happy he looked.

Tears threatens to fall as she turns her head to the hammock, where there are two boys still slept. They look so peaceful, laying there and hugging each other. She ran her hands through both of their hair and over their faces. They've grown into handsome young men that she wished she was there to see their growth.

Have they changed? Would they still remember her? Is Ace still that shy little boy that would blush every time she brought him new clothes? Is Sabo still the boy with proper etiquettes that she'd never seen on a child so young? Are they still angry with the world? There's so much that she didn't get to see.

"Ace?" she whispers when the dark haired of the two begins to stir.

He hummed before slowly opening his eyes. "Makino?" he asks with his voice full of sleep.

"Yes, Ace," Makino says through her tears. She's so happy that he remembers her after all this time.

Ace's eyes widens in surprise. He didn't think they'd be able to see her first thing after waking up. "Sabo. Sabo! Makino's here," he said excitedly, shaking his bed mate.

"Hmm?" The blond's eyes opened a fraction before closing again. "Too early. Sleep. Five minutes," he mumbles.

Makino giggles at their antics, while Ace huffs and looks in between him and Sabo. His widens as he notices that it was only him and Sabo in the hammock.

"Luffy?! Luffy! Luffy Luffy Luffy!" Ace looks around their cabin room frantically for the missing teen.

Sabo shot his eyes wide open once he heard the frantic shouting of his brother. "What's wrong with Luffy?" he asks worriedly, looking to where his youngest brother isn't. "Where's Luffy?!"

"Obviously not here," Ace jumps out of the hammock, causing it to flip and send Sabo to the hard, wooden floor. "We have to find him."

They both grab their pants, putting it on as fast as the possibly could and run past a surprised Makino. Finally coming to her sense, she follows them out to the open deck, where they'd just jumped. Taking the same plank that she used to get up, she meets up with Garp, who was looking in the direction of where the boys took off, with wide eyes.

"Luffy's missing," she tells the old Marine with worry in her voice.

"Figures," the man mumbles. "They only panic when Luffy's not where they want him to be. That boy attracts trouble like a thief to a hoard of treasure." He heaves a sigh before looking at the young woman besides him, looking worriedly towards the forest. "Well, let's follow and see if we can find my wayward grandson before something happens."

"Why the forest?" she asks curiously as they make their way at a more sedate pace. "Wouldn't the village be closer to check first?"

"Nothing is opened in the village yet, and the forest would probably more fun for the kid," Garp huffs. "Kid thinks with his stomach."

They were already deep into the forest when they heard and felt a loud boom that caused all the birds in that area to fly as far away as they could. Then there were shouts, with the occasional screams, and other sounds of what could possibly a fight.

Without a word, Garp runs towards the commotion with Makino following as best as she can. Eventually, she lost sight of him, but it wasn't a problem as all she has to do is follow the sounds.

Soon enough, she caught sight of him and stopped right next to the Marine.

There, in the clearing of broken trees, were Dadan's men, unconscious and littered about here and there with the downed trees, branches, and some head first in shrubberies. Dadan, herself, is laying face down right in front of Garp's feet.

And right in the middle it all is a familiar looking face with his straw hat dangling behind his neck, facing down a wild boar. The boar rushed at the boy just as Ace and Sabo burst out of the shrubbery opposite of them. The two teens only stopped a moment to take in the scenery before running towards the youngest.

Makino, frozen in fear for the boys, could only watch as Luffy, it has to be Luffy as the face matches the one from the wanted poster, turns his fist black and punch the boar head on, and just seconds after, Ace and Sabo land their own black fists on Luffy's head.

"Oww. What was that for?" Luffy whines, crouching down with his hands over his new bumps.

""For leaving the ship and not letting us know,"" the both said.

"I was getting breakfast," Luffy pouts as he points to the unconscious boar.

"You could have woken us up, so we could go with you. What if you ran into trouble?" Sabo sighs.

Makino giggles as she thought about the statement, and it made sense, seeing how the boy could take down a wild boar with one punch, not to mention the downed bandits. It's good to know they look out for each other. The sound of her giggle finally caught the attention of the boys, and Sabo gave her a surprised look before smiling widely and running up to her to give her a hug, but not before stepping on Dadan as if she weren't there.

"Makino," he says as the woman returns his hug, "I'm so glad to see you again."

"Me too," she says as they let go to look at each other. "It's so good to see how well you two are doing. You boys have gotten so big."

The smile Sabo gives her turns pained as he asks, "By the way, what did I just step on?" He was too afraid to look down to see himself, but his question prompted Ace to look at what his brother is standing on, then back to Luffy.

"Will someone _please_ tell me if I stepped on something gross or not? These are new shoes," Sabo moans, wanting to know if he stepped on animal feces.

Makino giggles, not wanting to say anything. Garp looks on in amusement, though a bit miffed that they haven't greeted their grandpa yet, but it's ok. Makino deserves their attention. Instead of demanding their attention like he wants to, the Marine decides to get started on their breakfast.

"Depends on how you see it, I guess it's gross," Ace says, still looking at Luffy, but this time he raised an eyebrow, letting Luffy know that he wants to know why there were unconscious people all over the ground.

Luffy pouts even more as he finally answered. "They were in the way," he mumbles, crossing his arms

Hearing that it didn't sound like poop or a bloody carcas, unless Luffy's decided to move the body because they were in the way, but nothing smelt dead near him, Sabo finally looked down. "Oh. It's just Dadan," he says in relief.

"Come on, Luffy," Ace says, taking his brother's hand to introduce him to Makino, leaving Garp, whom he's ignoring on purpose, to deal with the boar.

After introductions were done, Makino had the boys situate Dadan and the bandits in a more comfortable position. It was while they were eating that bandit leader woke up with a groan. "What hit me?"

""Most likely a rubber fist,"" both Ace and Sabo said.

"Wha-" she cut herself off as she turns to the speakers. Her eyes widens as she recognized them from their wanted posters that she has hanging in her cabin. "Ace? Sabo? What are you boys doing here?"

"We decided to come and visit," Sabo answers.

"Only because Luffy wants to start his Pirate King adventure here in East Blue," Ace adds.

"Luffy?" Dadan asks in confusion, sure that she'd heard that name somewhere. Then she finally remembers Garp talking about a grandson of his. "Luffy!" She points her finger at the last of the boys that she's never seen before. She didn't bother with keeping the other boy's poster on her wall with Ace and Sabo's. No point when she didn't think she'd ever meet the kid. "You're that Shitty Garp's grandson!" There is a slight pause as she processed what Ace said. "Pirate _King?!_ "

She ends up shaking her head, while Makino laughs and Garp, once again miffed as he was once again treated as if he weren't there. "I give up," she sighs and gets up to take a seat with them and starts eating. From the very few years that she's taken care of Ace, and the few months with Sabo, she'd learn here's no point in trying to understand that not-family of crazies.

She'll save the headache for later, or maybe never. She may be happy to see Ace and Sabo again, but knowing them, they'll just give her migraines again. That's just how they are. No matter how long it's been or how grown up they are, Dadan is sure they still cause everyone around them migraines.

Luffy complained that there wasn't enough food, but Makino promised she'd make more food later.

"So what happened?" Sabo asks with a knowing grin.

"Luffy wouldn't have attacked you for no reason," Ace adds when Dadan gives Sabo a confused look.

"Oh, that," she huffs. "I was planning on robbing him blind."

""But he doesn't have anything for you to rob,"" they both say.

She grunted before answering. "I'm a bandit. I know real gold when I see it." She nods her head towards Luffy's hair clip before taking a large bite out of her meat.

Luffy quickly covered his precious clip before shouting, "You can't have it! Trao gave it to me."

"Don't want it anymore. Didn't know you were with these idiots," Dadan mumbles.

"Oh, ok," Luffy says with a smile before taking off his straw hat and digging around behind the ribbon.

"That hat looks familiar. Where did you get it from? It looks old," Makino asks.

"Shanks gave it to me. It's our promise," Luffy answers distractedly.

"Oh, yeah. We met Shanks," both Ace and Sabo said excitedly. "He told us that he's been to Fuusha before."

"Yes, he has," Makino giggles. "He came and went, but he was here for about a year or so. I never knew pirates could be so carefree."

""Shanks saved Luffy from a sea king,"" they said proudly.

"The only redeeming part of that damn Red Hair," Garp huffs. "He's the idiot that put the idea of being a Pirate King into my grandson."

"Ah! Found it!" Luffy said as he held up a green pebble-sized stone and hands it to Dadan. "You can have this."

The rest of the bandits had already woken while they were eating and watched in curiosity as Dadan held it up to the sun.

"Kid, this is real," she said as she hands it back to the boy, but Luffy only shook his head. "No, really. It's emerald. You know, worth a lot of money?"

"And I'm giving it to you. It's yours now."

"Look, you little shit, this may be small, but it's worth thousands of bellis," Dadan nearly shouts at the boy.

"You should just take it," Sabo says as he leans back on his hands with an amused smile.

"We're pirates. He can easily get more if he wants," Ace smirks.

The other bandits watches with wide-eyes, surprised that anyone would want to part with something that valuable.

"We already have more of it," Luffy says. "I left the rest with our treasures at home. This one is for Makino," he hands the other woman a red pebble.

"Why are you giving these to us?" Makino asks as she accepts the stone carefully.

"Because you took care of Ace and Sabo. If you didn't take care of Ace and Sabo, I wouldn't be here. So I want to thank you," Luffy smiles. His words cause Ace and Sabo to blush.

Makino got up to give Luffy a hug telling the boy that it wasn't necessary but thanked him anyway, tucking the ruby into her pocket for safekeeping.

Dadan huffs before saying, "At least one of you is thoughtful. Taking care of those brats were a pain in the ass."

"And what about your dear old Grandpa?" Garp asks.

"You're a big shot in the Marines, so you don't need it." They all laugh at that response, except Garp. He just opened and closed his mouth, taken aback. He ended up grumbling about ungrateful grandsons.

"When are you brats leaving?" Dadan asks before they left the forest to go to Fuusha.

"We're not sure. Maybe tomorrow," Sabo answers.

"Don't worry, we'll come and visit before we leave," Ace smiles before they turned to leave.

"Boss?" Magra waves his hand in front of the bandit leader's stunned face.

"Ace smiled," she says in wonder. "I can't believe that angry little monster actually smiled."

"Garp did say the pirates that took them in were good," Dogra says, a little happy for the two kids they helped raise. "They must have helped him."

The leader gives a huff but smiled. "Can't believe there'd be any pirates out there that'd willingly take in Roger's son. Come on boys, we need to get the day started."

-*/

Woop Slap, the mayor of Fuusha Village, is on his way to Partys Bar to find Garp since the Marine wasn't at his home. That's where Garp usually is during this time of day if he isn't in his home. It's the only place the man goes for his meals. Makino spoils the old man.

Once the bar is in view, he notices most of the young women of the village crowding around the windows and door, peering in. "What's going on?" he asks one.

"Oh, Mayor!" she turns to the old man. "You won't believe it, but there're outsiders in Makino's place. Do you think Makino fancy one of them?"

"And why are you girls loitering out here for?"

"Because it's not often you see handsome men in our village," she sighs before turning her eyes back to the window. "Do you think they're taken?"

"Don't you girls have anything better to do," he grumbles as he heads in.

The fact that all these girls were drooling over the outsiders is strange. What he found even more strange is that Partys Bar isn't to be opened for another couple of hours for lunch.

 _Of course they leave out the fact that Garp is in here,_ he thinks to himself as he notices the man sitting at a table with a child, and no handsome men in sight, unless the standards the girls are going for nowadays have lowered to an old man or a kid.

"Garp," the mayor greets once he enters the bar.

"Morning, Woop Slap," Garp answers cheerily, waving the old man over. "Meet my grandson, Luffy. Luffy, his is Woop Slap, the mayor here."

"Yo," Luffy answers with a lift of a hand.

"Your grandson, huh? I take it the other two are here too?" he takes a quick look around the empty bar to see no one else, not even Makino. He and the barmaid knew why the old Marine took vacation time to come and visit, when he rarely does so anymore. Garp had looked so happy when he first arrived that he had to share the news that his three grandsons were finally coming home for a visit. Woop Slap had only seen the Marine that happy only once, and that was when he came to tell the news that his grandsons were alive.

"They're in the back helping Makino with the food," Garp laughs. "They didn't like all the attention they were getting."

Woop Slap turns his attention back to the boy. "So why are you kids here now? You boys should have came by earlier to let us know you were still alive, rather than staying on some filthy pirate ship," he huffs.

"Wanted to start my crew here in East Blue where Ace and Sabo grew up," Luffy beams. "I'm gonna be the Pirate King."

"Hmf. You want to start your pirate crew here? As if we need the reputation of spouting no-good pirates," the mayor gruffs. "I see living those Whitebeards for so long didn't teach you how bad pirates are."

Luffy laughs as he sensed no heat in those words. "Pirates are free," he says. The mayor continues to scowl, but inside, he felt lighter, knowing the brat hasn't been raised wrong. The wish of freedom, he understands. Just looking at Luffy, he knew the Whitebeards had given the boys the freedom they deserve.

They hear the sound of laughing and turn their heads to see Ace pushing a cart filled with food, Sabo with both arms carrying more food, and Makino laughing at whatever was said.

""Mayor!"" Ace and Sabo said in surprise. ""We were going to find you after breakfast.""

"Well, I was looking for Garp, but he wasn't home, so I figured he was here, mooching off poor Makino again."

"Say, Mayor," Sabo says as he tentatively looks towards the door, "think you can do something about that?"

Woop Slap looks at the door and back with a smirk. "You don't like having the attention of all the girls in the village?"

"Well, no," Ace says as he rubs the back of his neck. "It makes us feel like they're going to call the Marines on us. We're used to being avoided."

"No use in calling in the Marines when I'm here," Garp laughs loudly.

"Maybe it's because you're wearing wrong pants," Luffy says offhandedly as he ate his stolen food.

Both of the older teens look down to see that they're wearing each other's pants.

"I think it's because you're both shirtless," Makino giggles.

There's a pause as the boys look at each other.

"I think it's the pants," Ace finally says. "We've gone out without shirts before and never got this much attention."

"It's probably because there are so many dangerous pirates out there, that it's best to avoid them all," Makino says with a thoughtful face. "But Garp is here, and this village is mostly peaceful enough. And it's very rare that we see good-looking young men," she gives them a wink causing the two to blush.

"I'm going back to the ship to change," Sabo said determinedly.

"I - I didn't bring any shirts," Ace whines with his head on the table.

"Because that'll cover your tattoo," Luffy laughs, repeating what his brother has told him and his families many times before.

After breakfast and somehow leaving the bar without being mobbed, the two older men helped the boys buy the supplies they needed. Ace and Sabo wanted to leave tomorrow, no later than that. It was very uncomfortable having people openly stare at them or follow them as they shopped.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry if I take too long to post each chapter. This is my first story I'll be posting as I finish each chapter. I usually like to finish them before posting, just so I know that it's completed. I have no idea how long it'll take for me to post new chapters. . I hope you enjoy this sequel.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"I see a ship," Sabo announces as he looks through a binocular from the front of their small ship.

"You think they have food?" Ace asks weakly.

"Fooood," Luffy whines from where he's sprawled on the deck with Ace.

"Probably. It looks like a pretty decent-sized ship." There was a pause as Sabo continues to observe the ship they were nearing. "Oh~ It's a pirate ship."

"Don't care. Need food. Starving," Ace whines as Luffy moans in agreement.

"Suck it up, guys. We just missed breakfast. That's only one meal," Sabo scolds as he finally puts down his binocular and walks towards the helm to steer them towards the other ship. He had a log holding it in place so they didn't just randomly sail in a circle. The other two are currently being useless. He seriously hopes there's enough food for the three of them on that other ship.

Makino had packed them enough food to last them a week. It's been only three days since they left Dawn Island, but their food somehow disappeared over the course of the night. At first, Ace and Sabo thought Luffy ate it all, but their brother vehemently denied it. After some investigation, they found a strange otter-thing taking a nap with a full belly out in the open towards the back of the ship. The thing wasn't even hiding. Once it sensed them closing in, it finally woke up and immediately jumped into the sea without even a glance at them.

There was a loud grumbling from Luffy's stomach before he added, "And snack."

"Right. We only missed breakfast and snack," Sabo amends, hoping his own growling stomach wasn't heard. "That's not even a half a day. It's not that bad."

Ace lazily crawls over to the side of ship to bonelessly lean over the wall to take over watch. "Looks like they're unloading the ship. That island must be theirs," he drawls lethargically.

"Good. Hopefully, we can raid their kitchen without being noticed," Sabo nods to himself. "Wouldn't want the Marines to know we're out here, yet. That'd defeat the purpose of sailing without a flag."

"I don't get it," Luffy said weakly. He thinks their ship looks weird without a flag.

His blond brother heaves a sigh as he once again explains to Luffy the reason. "Because the newspaper in East Blue is different than in Grand Line. They only get reports about big things that happens in Grand Line. So the people here in East Blue doesn't really know us. You're going to use that to your advantage and get good crew members, not ones that follows you just because you have Grandpop's backing. The most recent news they have of us is probably a few years old. They only have our first, maybe second, wanted posters. The only reason Makino and Dadan have our most recent is because of Gramps."

"And don't forget to not use your full power. You might scare people into following you blindly. You want loyal crew members with backbones, not scaredy cats," Ace adds.

-*/

They couldn't help themselves. Rather than packing as much food as they could to take to their ship the moment they located the kitchen, their stomachs won, and they started pigging out as soon as they found anything edible. And now, they were caught red-handed by a short pink-haired teen.

The trio stared as the boy stuttered at them. "Who-who are you?"

"Ah, don't mind us. We're just passing by," Sabo answers with both his brothers nodding with their mouths full. He and Ace has a cloak over them to cover their clothes and Ace's tattoos.

The boy then rushes over to them and whispers urgently at them. "Don't you know what kind of ship you're on? This is a pirate's ship. Alvida Pirates! They're horrible, horrible pirates lead by 'Iron Mace' Alvida," he shivers just saying her name.

"Never heard of them," Ace says with a finger up his nose.

"How can you not know about the Alvida Pirates?!"

"Would you _please_ lower your voice?" Sabo says as he removes his hands from his ears. "We're trying to avoid trouble. Besides, we haven't been in East Blue in a while, so we have a perfectly good reason to not know about the pirates around here."

"Sorry," Coby lowers his voice to an almost whisper to match Sabo's. "Where are you guys from then? I'm Coby, by the way."

"Ah~ I feel so much better," Ace says as he pats his full stomach. "I'm Ace. These are my brothers, Sabo and Luffy. Where we came from...well, that's a secret for now."

"Oh, I see," Coby says dejectedly at not being able to learn more about these people before going back to persuading them to leave. "You seem to be good people. You really should leave before Alvida finds you."

"I'm going to be the Pirate King. I'm not afraid of no Almeeda," Luffy says as he starts shoving as much food as he could into a sack. "You're a good guy too. Why are you on this ship if you're not happy here?"

"PIRATE KING! Tha-that means you're pirates too!" Coby shouts, taking a few steps back.

"Never said we weren't," Sabo shrugs, already giving up on shushing Coby. They're almost done anyway.

"B-but Pirate King? That means you're looking for the World's Greatest Treasure, One Piece! Do you want to die? All the pirates in the world is looking for One Piece!"

"So?" the three of them gave Coby a look as if he were stupid.

"That's impossible. Absolutely impossible! Definitely impossible!There's no chance of being the Pirate King in this Great Age of Pirates!" Coby frantically rants before crouching and clutching the back of his head in pain. "Ow, why'd you hit me?"

"I felt like it," Ace says with a straight face, and his fist still held up.

"I'm not afraid of dying," Luffy says nonchalantly, filling another bag with more food from the pantry. "It's my dream, so I don't mind dying for it. Besides," the brunette gave the other a grin, "I'm not going down without a fight."

"If Luffy dies, Pops and Grandpops would be up in arms," Ace mutters to Sabo, who shivered at the thought.

Coby looks at Luffy's unwavering grin in awe. "Will I also...be able to accomplish my dream...if I'm willing to die for it?" Coby asks quietly from where he sits, looking to the ground before looking back up at Luffy with determination. "Will I be able to become a Marine?"

""A Marine?!"" Ace and Sabo blanch.

"It's been my dream, to catch bad guys," Coby says with conviction. "I want to be an Admiral. Do you think I can do it?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Luffy answers.

"I have to try. I'd rather die trying to get out of here and join the Marines, than to be a cabin boy here forever! And then...I'll be able to catch bad people like Alvida!"

"Who are you going to catch, Coby?" came a threatening voice before the kitchen door broke to reveal a large sized woman with a spiked mace. "Do you think you can escape from me? Huh?" She took one look around the room before asking, "Who are these people, Coby? I overhear you talking about catching me and thought you were conspiring with the Pirate Hunter, Roronoa Zoro. None of these idiots looks like a Pirate Hunter."

"Alvida!" Coby squeaks as he trembles in fear on the ground.

"Coby! Who is the most beautiful person on the sea?" the large woman demands, looking down at Coby.

"Who's this old, fat hag?" Luffy asks, pointing to Alvida.

There's a ruckus coming from the pirates behind their captain as they couldn't believe anyone would call Alvida fat in front of her.

"Lu-Luffy!" Coby hisses as he tugs the boy's arm. "That's Alvida! The most...the most..." he trails off as he Luffy's earlier words of conviction replays itself in his mind.

"The most what, Coby?" Alvida asks smugly.

"The-th-the most ugliest person in the world!" _There. I said it. I have no regrets!_ Coby thought to himself as he readies himself for death by spiked mace.

"Nicely worded," Sabo says, as he tugs Coby behind himself and Ace.

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Ace grins at Coby, before turning to Luffy, who's laughing at Coby's answer. "Remember, Lu, go easy."

"Go easy?!" Coby cries out. "She's the Captain of the Alvida Pirates!"

"Okay~" Luffy turns his head to answer his brother, when a red-faced Alvida raised her mace and smashed it on the young pirate's head.

The surrounding pirates had a look of surprise when the mace came bouncing off the boy's head.

"That's not gonna work," Luffy grins before pulling his arm back further than a normal human being's. "Gomu gomu no pistol!" Luffy calls out and punches the large woman into her stunned crew, knocking her unconscious.

"How did you do that, Luffy?" Coby asks from where Ace has to hold him up right when his legs gave out on him from seeing Luffy knock out his former captain.

"I ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi," Luffy pulls the side of his lips far from his face to show him, then let it snap back into place. "I'm a human rubber."

"Now, let's pilfer you a boat and get you on your merry way to becoming a Marine," Sabo says, leading Coby out of the kitchen, as Ace and Luffy grab their bags of food. "First thing first, would you fine gentlemen happen to have more food stored elsewhere?" Sabo asks the trembling pirates, who scurried to side to make way for them to leave.

They all pointed towards the island they were docked at. "I know where all the food is kept," Coby offers.

"See, Luffy, this is why you don't want your crew to be scared of you. No loyalty. They would only follow you just because they're too scared to do otherwise," Ace nods his head sagely.

-*/

"So you ate a Devil's Fruit?" Coby asks as he helps Sabo and Luffy load more bags of food from Alvida's storage shed on the island.

"So did Ace and Sabo," Luffy answers with a mouth full of apples.

"Is the rumor true? That you can't swim after eating one?"

"Very true," Sabo says.

"Then how do you plan on sailing to One Piece? You'd have to go through Grand Line! That place is known as the Pirates' Graveyard! You'll die! Especially if you can't swim! That's impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

Luffy then smacks Coby on the back of the head. "It doesn't matter if I can swim or not. I'm going to find good nakamas. They'll help me, just like my family did."

"I can't believe all three of you can't swim and are willing to sail all the way to Grand Line just to find One Piece," Coby moans.

"That's just Luffy. Ace and I are going back home after Luffy finds his first crew member," Sabo says.

"You're leaving your kid brother to sail alone with unknown people?!" Coby nearly screamed, dropping his sack.

Sabo gave the pink-haired boy an offended look. "For your information, my little brother may look young, but he's 15 years old. He's just a little on the short side. He knows all about stranger danger."

"Fifteen is way too young!" Coby insists. The thought that the fifteen-year-old is shorter than him didn't even register.

"Yes, it is. Luffy's going to be the youngest pirate captain ever," Sabo says proudly as Luffy gives him a thumbs up and a grin.

Coby opens his mouth to say something, only to the close it back. He's going to stop now. He can already tell it's a loosing argument, and he doesn't want another lump on his head.

The three of them came out of the storage to see Ace, who they'd left outside as their lookout, crouched down in front of the pirate ship, with the pirates at the rail looking down fearfully at what he was doing. Sabo and Luffy walks up behind Ace to see their brother trying to light a match.

"Ace, what are you doing?" Sabo asks.

"I'm trying to burn this stupid ship down so they can't follow us. Only to remember that I haven't lit a match in years." Ace shoves the match and box to Sabo.

After striking the match to the box, the lit flame immediately absorbs to Sabo's fingers. "Oh," Sabo says with a look of surprise. "I guess we wouldn't have known, seeing as we hadn't need to use matches in a while," he mutters.

"You...don't know how to light a match?" Coby asks in surprise, not having seen the flame retreat into Sabo. "If you'd like -"

"Nah, I got this," Sabo waves Coby off and crouched down, motion Ace to following. "See, Ace, this is how it's done." Out of prying eyes, Sabo lit a finger and touch the ship and moved away, only for the flimsy flame to go out with the gentle wind. Frowning, the blond went back down to try again with a little larger flame and again and again, until Ace had enough.

"You know what? Screw this." Ace grabs the pipe Sabo has hidden under his cloak, smashing it into the lower front of the ship so that it wouldn't be able to float without taking in large amounts of water.

-*/

"Hey, hey," Luffy fidgets from where he's seated. "Tell me about that Zolo person."

"You mean Zoro? He's a Pirate Hunter. He's a scary person. Rumor has it that he's a bloodthirsty monster in human form. He's currently being held at a Marine Base in Shells Town on Yotsuba Island," Coby says.

"Luffy, please tell me you're not going to try and recruit this Zoro person," Sabo says, hoping he read his brother's face wrong.

"Maybe," Luffy says with a smile. "If he's a good person, then yes."

"But, Lu, he's a Pirate Hunter," Sabo tries to reason. "He hunts pirates like us and turn us in for our bounty. All they care about is money."

"But he could be a good guy, and he's a monster too." Coby flinched at the thought of wanting a bloodthirsty monster on a crew.

"Give it up, Sabo," Ace sighs as he steers the ship. "What Luffy wants, Luffy gets. You should know that by now."

"Let's go there." Luffy laughs at Sabo's resigned face and Coby's look of horror. "We can drop Coby off at the Marine Base too."

"In that case, if we're going in the same direction, shouldn't we just leave the row boat?" Coby points to the boat they stole from Alvida, that's being towed behind them.

"Nah. We'll keep it," Ace says. "Luffy will need it later."

"But wouldn't it slow us down?"

"We're the captains of this ship. If Ace says to keep it, then we're keeping it." The smile that Sabo gives Coby sent chills down his back.

"R-right," Coby nods his head quickly, not wanting to get on the blond's bad side. He knows firsthand how bad it is to cross a pirate captain.

* * *

 **A/N:** Ugh! This new laptop is shitty! I've had to rewrite this a few times because the stupid laptop kept restarting without warning before I could save. I've learned, now. Save every five minutes, just in case...and sorry for taking so long to get this out. I've been busy with things and of course, laptop problems.

FYI: I'm going to try to follow Luffy. So anything that isn't mentioned, just pretend that it's the same as the manga/anime. If I decide that something's going to happen differently with anyone else, I'll write it. ^_^v

Anyway, I followed the manga on this chapter. Instead of being on a cruise ship, Alvida was at her island base, and that's where Luffy beat her with a single punch. Truthfully, I'm not to happy with this chapter. I seems boring, but I don't know what else to do with it. Oh well. I hope you guys like it.

What do you think? Updates will be random as I'm busy with work and school. Thanks for reading! (^-^)ゝ


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

 **A/N:** Quite a few of you reminded me that I forgot to put some info up last chapter. Opps. Luffy is a couple years younger in this story, and everyone else is the same age as the manga. Why did he leave so early? Because they finally got rid of Doflamingo (maybe?), so Luffy feels safe enough to set sail without worrying about the pink bastard going after his family and his future crew. He didn't make a promise to anyone about leaving at a certain age in this story, and really, no one wanted him to leave just yet (or ever). But Whitebeard figures, 'Why not? Go for it. He's going to leave eventually anyway.' And Whitebeard trusts Luffy to be able to take care of himself (of course, he and the rest of the family will be keeping tabs on him). Luffy just wants to hurry and be the Pirate King.

* * *

Coby isn't sure what to think anymore. It's been only two days since he's sailed with the strange brothers. Strange doesn't even cover it. They sleep together in the same hammock. They even asked if he wanted to join them. He's not even sure if they were being serious or teasing him. They even take naps together out on the deck. All three of them! Do they even know what a lookout is? Granted, nothing has happened, but still! They should at least have one awake at all times to make sure nothing happens. What if they were attacked? Or a whirlpool shows up? Or...or something!

Then when it's time to eat, they'd give Coby all the canned stuff, not wanting to eat it themselves. Not that he was complaining. They were good and edible. Why did they even take it then? All they ate were raw fruits, and they cooked the meat themselves. And they ate a lot. At least they were kind enough to share some with him. He's so glad they were near the island they wanted to go to. There isn't enough food to last the rest of the day with the amount they ate. He could have sworn they had enough to last at least a week or more with how much they've taken from Alvida.

And Luffy actually complained about there not being enough seakings swimming around. Luckily, they haven't ran into any yet. Something Coby is extremely grateful for. Luffy even mentioned something about the seakings were not big enough. That made Coby wonder what kind of seakings they've seen and where they've been.

Let's not forget the outlandish tales they tell. An island under the sea? Giants? Islands in the sky? Goldfish with poop as big as an island? Coby couldn't believe the older brothers would even go along with the stories Luffy told, even adding bits and parts to the stories. He could only shake his head at the boy's wild imagination. Coby isn't that gullible to believe all those strange tales.

What Coby finds even weirder is that the older brothers are willing to let Luffy sail alone when Luffy doesn't know how to use a compass, nor does he want to. Apparently, the youngest doesn't like the fact that the compass only points in one direction and not the direction he wants. That's common sense, right? All compasses points north. It's always north. Always been that way. Right?

Even though he's only met these brothers, he's already considers them his friends and is very worried for the youngest to sail alone for many other reasons. He's never had friends before. Everyone usually just makes fun of him or push him around. These three didn't laugh at his dream of being a Marine Admiral. They even helped him leave Alvida Pirates and is willing to take him to a Marine Base.

"We're finally at the Marine base!" Luffy cheers as the hops off the ship.

"Great. Now we need to-" Sabo starts before Luffy cut in.

"Food!"

"Right, we need to get something to eat," the blond nods as if that was what he had planned on saying, as they all followed Luffy who had started running off without them.

Both Sabo and Ace had their hood of their cloak up to hide their identity. They were on a Marine Island, after all. It's best to be careful. They just hoped no one would recognize Luffy. Luckily, his wanted poster is of him in a dress, and it doesn't say whether the person is male or female, just his name. They have their fingers crossed that no one would recognize him until he has enough trustworthy crew mates, and that the marines and people of East Blue doesn't keep tabs of Grand Line pirates.

Once Luffy and Coby took a seat, Ace and Sabo went up to the woman at the counter to make their order requests.

Coby watched Luffy curiously, as the boy ate his first plate at a normal pace. This is the first time that he's every seen Luffy eat like a normal person. Then after finishing, the pirate-captain-to-be gave a wide grin before attacking the rest of the plates laid out on the table for him at his normal fast-paced eating. Coby really wanted to ask what that was about but didn't see the point. If he had learned anything from staying with the trio for the short time, it was that the two older brothers don't like giving away information about themselves, Luffy included, unless it was about the strange things they've supposedly seen. Luffy may answer, but his answers tends to be as far fetched as his adventure stories or a jumbled mess that doesn't make sense.

"I wonder if Zoro is still at the Marine Base," Luffy says, patting his full stomach after he finished eating.

The other customers in the restaurant got up so fast that the tables and chairs got overturned. All four of them look around at the fear in the faces of the other patrons, even though most of them were watching the two cloaked figures warily before.

"Looks like the name 'Zoro' is taboo here," Coby leans in to whisper to them. He sat back up and mentions seeing a notice in the streets that there was someone called Captain Morgan at the base, to which they received the same treatment.

The three brothers were laughing as they left the restaurant.

"Oh my God! That was hilarious," Sabo wheezed with an arm around Ace's neck to hold himself up, with the other doing the same.

"Hey, guys," Coby says with a hint of nervousness in his voice, "I have a bad feeling about this. I understand why the people there had that reaction to Roronoa Zoro's name, but why would they be afraid of a Marine Captain's name too?"

"Maybe he did something bad," Luffy says as he leads them towards where he thinks the Marine Base is.

"That's impossible!" Coby shouts, feeling the need to defend the Marines.

""No need to get defensive,"" Ace and Sabo lean their elbows on either side of Coby's shoulders.

"We're not being bias just because we're pirates," Ace says.

"How about this," Sabo continues when Coby looks at Ace, eyes full of doubt, "we're pirates." Sabo gestures to himself and his brothers. "What do you think of us?"

"What I think about you..." Coby trails off in thought. After a moment of thought, he hunched his shoulders, making himself smaller. "I know we just met and all," he says meekly, poking his pointer fingers and thumbs at each other, "but I think of you guys as friends. Is that okay? To think of you as friends? Even though we haven't known each other for very long? I know you're pirates and all, and I want to be a marine, but I still think of you as my friends."

"Hey, guys," Luffy calls out from in front of them. "I think that's the Marine Base."

Ace gave Coby a shoulder bump before going to join Luffy climbing up the wall of the base.

"We thought of you as a friend since the day you sailed with us. We wouldn't have let you on our ship otherwise," Sabo says softly, looking at his brothers with a warm smile. "Just remember that not all Marines are good and not all pirates are bad. You have to see things with your own eyes and judge what is right and wrong on your own. Don't let others tell you what to think."

Coby's feet froze as Sabo went off to join his brothers, happy that they thought of him as a friend also. He quickly wiped the tears that were about to fall and ran to catch up with the brothers.

"Hey, Coby," Luffy says from his right, "is that the monster?"

Coby nearly slips from his hold on the wall when he caught sight of the prisoner. "Th-tha-that black bandana and haramaki and intimidating aura, it's Z-Z-Zoro," he confirms.

"Hmm? So that's Zoro," Ace places his chin on his arms that are crossed over the wall. "Those ropes looks easy enough to break. Wonder why he's still there."

The four of them look over to their left when a ladder all of the sudden showed up with a little girl climbing over it. Coby freaked out when the girl ran over to Zoro with something in her hands. "Someone go stop her! She's going to get killed!"

"Why don't you do it yourself?" Sabo says casually as he observes the girl.

They watched as the girl offered her onigiri to Zoro, only for the swordsman to yell at her to go away. Then a young man in a suit and two marines come in.

"He must be someone important. Thank goodness. The girl is safe now," Coby breaths a sigh of relief.

Ace and Sabo scowled when the suit guy grabbed an onigiri only to make a face of disgust after taking a bite and then stomping it into the ground.

"That bastard," Ace growls.

"How pathetic," Sabo spat at how the guy keeps mentioning his father. "No backbone at all." He stays where he is and trusts Ace to catch the girl as she was being tossed over the wall.

Ace stays on the ground with the girl when Luffy finally climbs over the wall to walk over to the prisoner after the marines and the wimpy guy left.

"What do you want?" Zoro grunts when Luffy stops in front of him. "Don't think I didn't notice you guys watching from over there," he turns his head to see Sabo and Coby still there at the wall watching them.

"I'm looking for people to join my pirate crew," Luffy says with a wide smile.

"Pirate?" Zoro scoffs. "So you gave up on life and became an outlaw, huh?"

"There's nothing wrong with being a pirate! It's my dream," Luffy defends.

"Let me guess, you're going to set me free and force me to join your crew."

"I haven't made up my mind yet, since everyone thinks you're a bad guy."

Zoro thought it was weird how the kid in front of him went from defensive to happy quickly, especially while saying he's a 'bad guy.' "A bad guy, huh? I'll never join you because I have something I need to do. I could survive even without your help. If I can survive a month here, I'll be set free. That's what the idiot son promised me. I'm going to do everything I can to stay alive and fulfill my dream!"

"Really?" Luffy says curiously. "I think I'd starve to death in a week."

"That's why we're different. Go find someone else to join your crew. Hold on," Zoro stops Luffy from leaving. "Could you pick that up for me?" he nods his head towards the squished onigiri on the ground.

"You want to eat this?" Luffy says in confusion, even though he bent over to pick it up. "It's all muddy. Well, I guess you can't be picky if you're hungry."

"Shut up and give it to me already." Zoro had his mouth open, waiting for the muddy onigiri.

"Do you want to kill yourself?" Luffy comments as Zoro tries not to choke on the muddy onigiri.

"Tell that girl, 'The onigiri was very girl, thank you very much,'" Zoro coughs out.

Luffy laughs as he walks back to Coby and his brothers. He passes the message on to the little girl as the group walks back to the village.

"Really?" the girls says happily. "I'm so happy."

"Is he really as bad as what the rumors says?" Coby asks thoughtfully.

"No, he isn't," the girl insists. "He didn't do anything wrong. He got arrested because of me. He killed Helmeppo's pet wolf because it was running around scaring people. I was in it's way, and Zoro killed it before it could hurt me."

"So you're saying that this Zoro guy got arrested because of that wimpy guy's pet?" Sabo clarifies.

"Yeah," the girl nods. "So the only bad guys are the Morgans. You'll get executed if you don't listen to them, so everyone's afraid of them."

They all turn their head towards the commotion behind them. The brothers had a look of hatred as the idiot son threatens anyone who lifts their head as he walks down the street.

"Who does he think he is?" Ace seethes, as memories of Celestial Dragons went through the trio's minds.

Red blinds Luffy when he hears the son mention moving Zoro's execution date to the next day, rather than the month that was promised. Before they knew it, Luffy had already punched the idiot in the face.

"Luffy!" Coby cries out as he holds Luffy back, while Ace and Sabo tries to hold back their own anger. They all ignore the towns people's cries of disbelief.

"Who-who the hell are you? How dare you hit me! I'm going to tell my dad on you!" the idiot points at them as he held his bruised cheek. What he didn't know was that he was lucky that Luffy held back and didn't kill him right then and there with that punch.

"I've decided," Luffy says with determination. "I'm going to have Zoro join my crew."

"Luffy, calm down. They're marines!" Coby tries to reason with the boy he's holding onto.

"I don't care. A bastard is a bastard! Why don't you fight me yourself!" He yells the last part to Helmeppo.

"You'll regret hitting me. You'll get the death sentence for that, and my dad will be the one to execute you!" the wimp yells as he's being carried away by the two marines with him.

"It's pointless to hit someone like him," Luffy huffs as he sets his straw hat back on his head.

"You already hit him, Lu," Sabo snickers.

"More like you sucker punched him," Ace laughs loudly, patting Luffy's back.

"You were so cool!" the girl says. "I was so scared."

"Oh, then I should have punched him a few more times."

"RIKA! Come here! Don't talk to strangers! What if you were executed too for being associated with them," a woman scolds the girl as she pulls them both into a house.

"Hey, that's the lady with the yummy food~" Luffy drools as he waves to Rika.

"We're going to be in trouble!" Coby panics. "If Captain Morgan gets mad, he's going to send the marines after us!"

"We'll deal with it when it comes. I'm gonna talk to Zoro," Luffy says. He was just about to walk away when Sabo stops him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Ace and I will be leaving you here," his blond brother says as he gives his brother a hug. "We've got something we need to do."

"We'll try to come see you when you get your first bounty, alright?" Ace joins in on the hug.

The smile fades from Luffy's face for a second before bringing it back and hugging his brothers back. "Okay. I'm going to miss you. Make sure you visit. You have to see my crew." He gives them a bright smile as he lets go of them and walks off towards the Marine Base.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay without your brothers?" Coby asks tentatively.

"I have to be. I'm going to be the Pirate King, so we can be the freest people in the world." The quiet intensity in Luffy's voice made Coby turn his head to see the boy's face. The serious face he saw sent chills down his back, and he briefly wonders what's made Luffy want to be the Pirate King so badly. Only briefly, because he's more worried about having the Marines chasing their ass.

-*/

"Yo!" Luffy holds a hand up in greeting to Zoro.

"It's you again. I've already told you, I'm not going to be a pirate," Zoro sighs, already tired of dealing with the kid in front of him.

"I'm Luffy. I'm going to untie you, and you're going to join my crew."

"I've already told you, NO!"

"You use a sword right?"

"Yeah, that bastard kid took it away. It's something I treasure more than my life."

"Treasure, huh? I'll go get it, but if you want it back, you have to join my crew."

"THAT'S DIRTY! What are you? The son of the Devil?"

"Something like that?" Luffy tilts his head in thought.

"Huh?"

"Anyway, I'll be right back."

"Hey! WAIT! ...is he planning on sneaking into the base? What an idiot," Zoro huffs before another person with pink hair comes towards him.

-*/

"I think he's this way," Luffy says to himself as he follows what he thinks is the idiot wimp's presence. He looks up when a tower came into view. "There!" He reaches up and stretches his arms all the way to the top and rockets himself up, only to go a little to far. He reached for the nearest thing to stop his ascent, which happens to be a statue that was currently being pulled upright, and it fell, causing it to break in half. "Sorry," he apologizes to the group of marines there.

"Capture him! I'm going to kill him!" Screams the marine in charge.

"That's him! That's the guy that hit me!"

"Ah! There you are. I've been looking for you," Luffy quickly runs to grab the idiot son and drags him off. "Where's Zoro's katana?" Luffy finally got around to asking after dragging the idiot around for a while.

"I'll tell you! I'll tell you! Just stop dragging me! It's - It's in my room! We already went past it!"

"Why didn't you say so earlier!" Luffy gave him another punch in the face for wasting his time.

"Ow! Don't hit me! That hurts!" the wimp wails, even though Luffy barely put any strength into the punch.

Luffy turns his head around when he hears the sounds of boots coming closer from the marines chasing him and sees them aiming their guns at him. He sighs as they demanded he raise his hands and surrender. Really, he's already wasting precious time. Coby's already at the execution ground with Zoro, and Luffy can feel the high ranking Marine with his underlings heading there. Luffy's sure he could defeat these guys easily, but he really doesn't want to hurt them. They're good people. They're just following orders.

Instead, he used the wimp as a shield and pushed his way past them, back to where Helmeppo said his room was. He randomly opens a door and asks if this was it, only to be greeted with silence. Luffy looks down to see that the wimp was out. Not giving it another thought, he just drops the wimp to the ground. He sees the swords. There's three of them, but it doesn't matter. If he brings them all, Zoro can just take what's his, and they'll just toss the others.

Now, he needs to hurry back to Coby and Zoro. Good thing the window here faces the execution ground, though what he sees isn't very good. The Marines has his friend and soon-to-be crew mate surrounded. He has to hurry. The marines have their guns trained at both of them. Without a second thought, Luffy grabs the window sill and walks back, stretching his arm. He adjusts his positioning so that he doesn't miss his landing this time, then lets go, smashing through the window.

"I made it!" Luffy cheers as he blocks the bullets aimed at Coby and Zoro, making sure to stretch tall enough to get the ones aiming for Zoro's head. All eyes bulged as none of the bullets penetrated, only stretching the skin where they hit. He laughs loudly as he lets the bullets fly back towards the marines, making sure none hits. Using the time the marines are getting over the shot and gathering themselves, Luffy turns to Zoro to give him his sword.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Zoro yells at him before he could even hand him his sword.

"I'm Luffy. The man that's going to be the Pirate King."

"Man? You're just a kid," the swordsman scoffs.

"I'm 15," he comments and continues on as if it wasn't important, holding out the three katanas. "I didn't know which one is yours, so I brought all of them."

"All three are mine because I use three swords."

"Oh, okay. Well, resisting the marines here will make you an outlaw, or do you want to die?" Luffy wiggles the swords tauntingly in front of Zoro.

"You really are the son of the devil," Zoro says with a feral smile. "Whatever. Rather than dying here, I'll become a pirate with you."

"Yay! I did it!" Luffy cheers as he dances in a circle in happiness.

"Okay. Okay! I got it! Hurry up and get these ropes off me," Zoro demands urgently as the Marines finally got themselves together and starts charging at them with their swords.

"Oh, right. Hmm. But I'm not good with ropes," Luffy furrows his eyebrows as he fumbles with the ropes, seemingly oblivious to the danger coming towards them. He could use one of Zoro's swords, but Vista has told him that a sword is a swordsman's pride and that most wouldn't like it being used by others. He doesn't want Zoro to be mad at him for using his swords.

He stops with his fumbling and tilts his head in thought as Zoro continues to yells at him to hurry. He could just break the stake. That should loosen the ropes enough to come off, but would that scare off his new crew member? Luffy shrugs off his thought as there wasn't much time for anything else. Grabbing hold of the stake holding Zoro's left arm, he crushes the wood with his bare hand.

"There you go," Luffy says as he thrusts the swords at the swordsman's chest.

Zoro curses under his breath as he quickly unsheathes a sword to cut the rest of the ropes off him and save the loopy kid from his impending doom. With a sword in each hand and the third held in between his teeth, he held off the marine's swords from killing Luffy. Seriously. Who would casually stop in the middle of untying a rope to save a person and just stands there to think with marines charging at you with intent to kill?! _And_ has the balls to smile at his savior as if that's exactly what he wanted him to do. Better to lay down his terms with this idiot right now before this whole joining a pirate crew goes too far.

"If any of you move, I'll kill you," he warns the marines. Zoro turns his attention back to his new captain. "I already told you I'd be a pirate with you, but I have my own dream. I'm going to be the world's greatest swordsman. I no longer care if my name is clean. Bad guy, good guy, it doesn't matter as long as name is known throughout the seas. If you do something to get in the way of my dream, I'll have you cut your stomach open!"

Luffy crosses his arm in pride. "I'd expect no less," he says grinning. "The Pirate King would need the world's greatest swordsman on his crew. It's perfect."

"Well said," Zoro grins from around his sword as the Marine Captain starts yelling at his men to finish them off.

"Zoro, duck!" Luffy orders as he twists and stretches his left leg out. "Gomu Gomu no Whip!" He spins back around and brings his overly stretched out leg around and over Zoro's head to slam it into the group of marines, sending them flying.

"What are you?" Zoro asks in surprise.

"Me? I'm a rubber man," Luffy grins. He stretches his cheeks further than it was possible for a normal person to show him.

Hearing this, the marines starts complaining about not being able to defeat the two pirates. They already knew they were in no way strong enough to defeat the Pirate Hunter Zoro now that he has his swords, but add in a kid with what is most likely a Devil's Fruit? There's no way.

Luffy basks in the joy of causing fear in the marines. It's what he and his brothers do every chance they get. He's going to miss playing Marine hide-and-seek with his brothers. Maybe his crew will play with him. He giggles at the thought of his whole crew playing games at a Marine Base in Paradise. That would be fun.

The shout of "That's an order," from the head Marine snaps Luffy out of his thought. He turns to see the marines all pointing their guns to their heads.

"What the hell does these dumb marines think they're doing?" Zoro curses. Before he could move to do something, Luffy was already off, running towards the Marine Captain.

"I'm your enemy here. If you're going to execute anyone, it should be me!" Luffy yells as he aims a punch at the Marine's face, only for it to be blocked by a large ax. Luffy had to hold back from using haki at the last minute. Otherwise, he was sure he'd be able to break the stupid ax and the stupid Marine's face. No. He has a promise to keep, and the only thing keeping his anger in check is the light of his brothers somewhere on the base. He promised his brothers that he wouldn't use his full strength yet, at least not until he reach Grand Line.

Seeing that Luffy has things under control, Zoro took his sword out of his mouth and relaxed. He really doesn't have the energy to put up that much of a fight. He's tired and hungry. That and this is the perfect chance to observe how strong his captain is.

"Luffy! Defeat these Marines!" Coby shouts at the top if his lungs. This isn't the kind of Marines he wants to join. Marines that blindly follows orders, whether they were reasonable or not, is just wrong. He doesn't understand how anyone could order their own men to kill themselves. He thought that was only something pirates would do.

"People like you, without status, have no right to oppose me! I am Marine Captain, Ax-hand Morgan!" the now-named Marine cries out.

Now that he's had time to calm himself, Luffy went along with the introduction, just like Sabo taught him. "I'm Luffy. Nice to meet you." Minus the handshakes and the likes, because he doesn't have time for it as Ax-hand Morgan decides to tell him to go to hell and swings his ax at his midsection.

Luffy didn't bother to look at the fence that got split in half by the ax. It was nothing new. He's seen galleons split in half with a single strike of a sword. Instead, he jumps up just high enough to avoid getting himself split in half and uses Morgan's chin as a springboard to flip backwards, sending the Marine Captain sprawling on his back. Not giving the man time to get back up, Luffy pounces on him and lands punch after punch on the Marine's face, reprimanding him for ruining Coby's dream.

He only stops and gets up because the idiot son has a gun on Coby. He knows the spineless wimp wouldn't pull the trigger, but he stops anyway, heeding Izo's warning of leaving a gun with amateurs. You never know if the trigger might get pulled on accident. Guns are dangerous like that.

Luffy stares at Coby, looking for what it is Coby wants him to do. This will be a test to see if Coby has the backbones to overcome the difficulties that lies before him in order to reach his dream. Regardless, Luffy will save him, but Coby needs to learn to stand on his own when they leave. The young captain smiles brightly when his friend declares that he's not afraid to die, even while trembling with fear.

He readies his fist, already knowing that Morgan is already up and ready to strike him down without Coby's warning. Now is the time to see what his new crew member can do. Either way, the ax wouldn't be able to cut him. He has Armament Haki ready under his hat.

"Gomu Gomu no," Luffy stretches his arms back, relishing in the fact that he hasn't had to use this move in a long time, not since he's learn to use Gear Second, "Pistol!" He lets his fist fly towards the idiot son, just as Morgan brought his ax-hand down towards his head. His punch hits his target at the same time Zoro cuts down the Marine Captain. "Nice, Zoro."

"Leave it to me, Captain," Zoro answers lightly, causing Luffy to giggle. He's finally a pirate captain!

There was a moment of shock before the surrounding Marines threw their weapons in the air and cheered. That was when Zoro fell to the ground, complaining about hunger.

-*/

After eating their fill at Rika's Mom's restaurant, figuring out what they're doing next, and Coby freaking out over their plan, a Marine disrupts their talks.

"Excuse me, we are wondering are you really pirates?" he asks

"Yes, we are," Luffy smiles cheerfully. He's finally got a crew mate, so they're finally a pirate crew.

"We are all grateful that you saved our town and base, but as Marines, we can't let you stay any longer. You will need to leave this island immediately. To show our gratitude, we won't report you to Headquarters."

"Mmm...Okay. Let's go Zoro."

Luffy stopped to look back when the Marine asks if Coby is with them.

"I"m - n-no-not with them," Coby finally says.

"Is he telling the truth?" the Marine asks Luffy.

"I know this guy," Luffy says, laughing inwardly at what he's about to do and hopes Coby falls for it. "I don't remember where, but he used to be with this reeeealy big lady. I think her name was Almeeda. It was a fat and ugly pirate." He says poking Coby in the forehead. "He spent two years with them."

"SHUT UP!" Coby had enough and punches Luffy in the face with all his might. He didn't want his dreams to be ruined by someone he thought was a friend. He couldn't believe he was being betrayed.

"Why you!" Luffy retaliates, hitting Coby back a few times until he was stopped. He was proud of his friend and hopes the pink-haired teen reach his dream.

"I now know he's not your friend! Please leave this island immediately!" the Marine yells at them.

Coby caught a glimpse of the smile on Luffy's face before the boy turns to leave and knew it was all done for him. He wanted to cry at how useless he was and that he received help again. Not letting this chance get away, Coby stood tall and asks to join the marines.

-*/

"Don't you think you went overboard?" Zoro asks about the Coby incident. "He doesn't seem like the fighting type, and he was bleeding."

"He'll be fine. I know he'll be a strong Marine," Luffy laughs.

"Right. So I take it, that's your ship?" Zoro asks, pointing to the decently sized ship. It's got a cabin, a nice sturdy mast, and a big sail. He doesn't know much about ships, but this one looks nice. Fairly cute, if he says so himself.

"Nope. It's this one," his captain points to the pathetic row boat with a sad excuse of a sail and two oars.

"Seriously?!"

"Yeah, my stuff is on here. See?" Luffy points to a large bag at the end of the boat. Ace and Sabo must have moved it for him. "We'll get a really cool ship later."

Zoro sighs and just goes along with it. Just as he hopped on with the rope that tied the boat to the dock, they both hear Coby calling for them.

"Thank you very much! I'll never forget you for the rest of my life!"

"I've never seen a marine salute a pirate before," Zoro laughs as he kicks them off the pier.

''Coby! We'll meet again!" Luffy calls out as they slowly sail away. He stood at the end waving at the group of Marines now saluting them.

-*/-*/-*/-*/-*/

 **Omake**

"You have great friends," Commander Ripper, the Marine that chased Luffy and Zoro away, says to Coby.

"Yes, sir," Coby says with tears of gratefulness streaming down his eyes.

"We have just saluted pirates and have violated the Marine's Code. Our punishment will be no food for a week!" the Commander says to his men.

The new temporary leader of the Marines expected the salutes and the calls of, "Yes, sir!" But he wasn't expecting the complaint that came from a marine standing behind Coby.

"A-a-a WEEK?! I can't go a week without food!"

"Shh! We're not marines, so we're not included," the one next to the wailer whispers but was loud enough for Ripper and Coby to hear.

"What do you mean by that?" the marine says as he looks the two over. They both had their hats pulled down low, so he couldn't see their faces very well.

"What he means is that we're pirates, and we're here for Coby," the one with black hair sticking out from under the hat says with no fear of being caught.

"M-me?!" Coby squeaks in fear of being taken away by pirates again.

"Yes, you," the blond one pokes at his chest, causing Coby to flinch at how hard he was being poked. "We weren't sure if these guys would actually take you in, since, you know, you worked for Alvida for two years. So we pulled some strings for you. Even got you into Marine Headquarters."

"Ace! Sabo! What are you two still doing here?!" Coby exclaims after recognizing the voices, surprised that the two brothers are still there.

""Surprise!"" They both say as they pulled their hats off to show their faces. ""We're still here~""

"More friends of yours?" the Marine asks with a raised eyebrow.

Coby didn't know how to answer, considering that he's already admitted that the pirate that just left was a friend of his. Would they still take him if he's friends with more pirates?

Seeing Coby's plight, the brothers answers for him. ""Yes, we are.""

"I see," was all the Marine says before dismissing the rest of the Marines back to the base.

""Wait! That's it?"" The brothers were baffled with the treatment.

"Yes, that's it. We have enough to deal with here now that your brother took down our Captain. It didn't quite click until I heard your names. Ace, Sabo, and Luffy, the ASL Pirates, the Demon Children of Whitebeard, right? You guys have a habit of turning up at random Marine Bases in Grand Line and wreck havoc for fun," he says, feeling quite proud of himself for surprising them with his knowledge. "I was based in the first-half of Grand Line for a few years, before coming back to East Blue."

"Aww, you're no fun," Ace pouts as he crosses his arms.

"Is it possible for you to not let Headquarters know we're here?" Sabo asks hopefully. "We want Lu to find crew mates without knowing his ties to Whitebeard just yet."

Ripper regards them thoughtfully before sighing. "Only if you leave my men alone."

""Yes, sir,"" they both salute the Marine with the wrong hand as he walks away. ""Don't worry, we'll be out of your hair as soon as the old geezer gets here. We'll even put in a good word for you.""

"Damn creepy kids," the Marine mutters under his breath as he walks as far away as he could from them. "Wonder if they had to rehearse what they're going to say to sound so synchronized."

-*/-*/-*/-*/-*/

 **A/N:** I did it! I finished this chapter in less than a week. Just don't expect that often. I just happened to have a slow week. XD

What do you think of this chapter? It's waaaay longer than the last chapter. Most of the dialogues were taken from the manga or anime, I just switch who said some of them. I'm actually rereading and rewatching this before I write the chapters. Did I forget to mention anything else that needs to be clarified?


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** I am very excited to announce that I now have a beta. Thank you very much, **Navigator101** , for helping me fix my mistakes and for giving me ideas for this story. She's even going through _Not Everyday is a Good Day_ and fixing my mistakes there.

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

Sailing with Luffy was interesting, was Zoro's initial thought. He really didn't mind that the kid liked to nap as much as he did, but he did mind that the kid liked to snuggle. After trying several times to get the kid off him, the swordsman just gave up.

Neither one of them knew the basics of navigation. His captain just said to let the sea and wind take them wherever, and they'll reach an island eventually. The problem now was that they're both hungry with no land in sight to restock their tiny boat. They'd run out of the food that was packed in the large bag that was waiting in the boat for them.

The bag was jammed pack with fruits, variety of jerkies, clothes (why was there a dress in there?), a knife, and a small pistol. Luffy immediately buckled the latter of the two on either side of his thighs and said he felt naked without them.

Now? Now he thinks sailing with Luffy was a pain in the ass. They're lost and hungry. His captain didn't seem too worried about being lost but complained about the lack of food nonstop. Not to mention the growling from the kid's stomach was getting on his last nerve.

Of course, now he has to chase down his captain, who's been taken away by a giant bird. Why did his captain try to catch a bird that big for? They didn't have the space for it on this boat, nor did they have the ability to cook it.

And then he had to pick up stupid hitchhikers who thought it'd be smart to threaten him. Because of them, he'd lost sight of his captain. He sighed as he leaned back, letting the idiots row the boat for him.

He thought back to the note that he found in his pocket after Luffy took a nap on their first day out at sea.

 _Here is a list of things you need to know about your captain, Monkey D. Luffy, to keep your sanity:_

· _Your captain is not a kid! He's a legitimate teenager!  
_ · _Bath day is every 2-3 days  
_ · _Make sure he has clothes on before he leaves the bath. If I ever hear that he made it out to public without clothes, I'll have your organs in my hands and make you watch as I pulverize them.  
_ · _That child is your responsibility. Make sure to take good care of him.  
_ · _What Luffy wants Luffy gets  
_ · _Be sure to only feed him non-greasy foods. Or lots and lots of salad if that isn't possible.  
_ · _Listen to your captain, he knows what he's doing, even if it doesn't seem like it (most of the time)  
_ · _Don't worry about him getting lost. He knows how to find you.  
_ · _Don't let him wander off alone! Trouble finds him.  
_ · _He can't sleep alone. Sleep with him, but don't you even DARE lay a hand on him!  
_ · _My grandchild is a handful, but he means well.  
_ · _Good Luck!_

The list was written in a jumble of different handwritings, hinting at a collaboration of multiple people. He wondered if all pirate captains came with an instruction manual. He didn't think captains should be that difficult to understand. They're just like any other people.

 _Trouble finds him my ass. He just found trouble all on his own._ Zoro thought as he sighed again, rubbing a hand over his face tiredly. Less than a week as a pirate and he's already regretting his decision. Well, there's no going back now. He just hoped wherever these guys were taking him, Luffy was there too.

-*/

This wasn't what he had planned. He was supposed to wrap his arms around the bird, let it fall to the sea, and have Zoro pick him up. Instead, he's the one that was caught in between the beak of the bird. Damn bird. It's not even giving him a proper ride. Flying with Pops was more fun than this. Though, this was interesting in its own way.

That is until a cannonball came at them. The bird squawked in surprise, causing it to drop Luffy. Now, Luffy was no stranger to falling in just about any strange situation, but at least one of his family members were usually around to fish him out if he happened to fall into the sea. This time, he was alone. There was no one to fish him out if he fell in the sea. For the second time in his life, he wished he wasn't alone. Being alone sucked.

The first was when he was kidnapped by a small pirate crew when he was younger. They had taken him when he was lagging behind Vista, Ace, and Sabo because he saw something interesting. He thought he was going to die, and he was scared and alone. Luckily, his Pops and his brothers came in time to save him.

Relief filled him as he saw an island right below him. Land! He can deal with that. He got himself ready to inhale as much air as he could to cushion is landing, but the sight of people below him caused him to yell out "Lookout below!" instead.

He was so glad he's made of rubber. That landing would have hurt (more like kill a normal human being).

-*/

Nami had just stolen a map of Grand Line from the pirate crew of Buggy the Clown and was now running for her life. The shout of "look out below" caused her and her pursuers to stop and look up where the shout came from. Something or someone was falling from the sky to land heavily on the cement ground, causing dust to form around them.

Once the dust settled, a boy looking around 12 or 13, maybe younger, stood up, unharmed.

"Well, that was interesting," the boy said as he dusted his shorts.

If the boy was any older, Nami would have just ran and let him fend for himself, but as it stood, she didn't have the conscious to see a kid killed on her watch.

"Come on," she said as she dragged him away. "We need to run, or they'll kill us."

"Uh, okay?" the kid tilted his head in confusion, letting himself be dragged away.

"Oh, no, you don't." Nami turned when the boy in her hand got tugged away from her by the neck of his vest. She turned just in time to see another swing his sword at the boy, who ducked his head, narrowly missed getting beheaded, but the wind from the swing made his hat fly away.

The boy headbutted the guy holding his vest and grabbed his hat before it flew too far. "Don't touch my hat!" he yelled and proceeded to knock out the other two chasers.

"Hey, I'm hungry. Do you have any food?" He asked with a hand over his stomach to prove his point.

"Wow. You're strong," she said in awe as she led him in a house. "Where are your parents?"

"Parents?" the boy tilted his head in confusion. Is she asking about Ace and Sabo? Ace and Sabo are his parents, but they're also his brothers and his family, and they're Ace and Sabo. Why are there so many labels for people anyway? It's stupid and confusing. Couldn't she have just asked where Ace and Sabo are instead? "They should be home soon."

"I see. What are you doing out here all alone then?" she asked as she made him a sandwich. "Don't you know it's dangerous out there?"

"Yup. It's dangerous everywhere. My brothers told me that," he said, happy that he remembered what he was told. "Why were those guys chasing you?"

"I'm Nami, by the way. Those guys are pirates. Their captain is Buggy the Clown," she said with hatred. "I just happened to have stolen a map from them, and they want it back."

"I'm Luffy!" the kid says with a huge grin. "So what kind of pirate is this Nami person?"

"I'M NAMI! THE PIRATE IS BUGGY!" She took a deep breath, watching the boy eat the sandwich. "Buggy is a famous pirate who likes cannons. Didn't you notice the empty town? Buggy took over. That reminds me, you should hurry back to your family."

"Eh? But my family is so far away. Even if I hurry, it'd take too long. I left to find my own pirate crew to follow my dream. I'm going to be the Pirate King," the boy laughed.

"You're a pirate?!" she nearly screeched. A boy this young? "You're just a kid! And just so you know, I hate pirates! The only things I like are money and tangerines!"

"I'm not a kid. I'm 15! You're a thief, so what's wrong with me being a pirate?"

"I'm not just a thief. I only steal from pirates," she huffed as she crossed her arms. Then a thought came to her. "Why don't we team up? You and your crew. My goal is to collect 100 billion beli. I even have a map of the Grand Line. We can be rich. Pirates in Grand Line are sure to have a lot of money."

"Hmm…but I'm not looking for a thief. I need a navigator, a cook, a musician –"

"I can navigate. I can help until I reach my goal," she lied.

"Alright!" Luffy cheered.

"Under one condition," she said. She felt bad about tricking him, but since he's a pirate, he should know things like this happens. She needed to get closer to Buggy so she could rob him while his guard was down. A big name pirate, like Buggy, is sure to have a lot of treasure. That would bring her closer to her goal.

"What is it?" Luffy didn't like the feeling she's giving now, but he really wants her to be on his crew. She's a nice person, even if she is hiding something deep inside. He figured he'll find out what it is eventually.

So he let himself be tied up and led to Buggy's base, where he was introduced as her boss.

"This kid is your boss?" Buggy sneered as he looked at the boy.

"Don't let his looks get you. He's actually a lot older than he looks. It's how he tricks people into doing things for him. As a matter of fact, I'm turning him in to you because I'm tired of him and his tricky ways. I'm thinking about joining your crew instead," she said as if she were a merchant selling her wares.

There was a moment of pause as Buggy thought. He then snapped his fingers and ordered, "Lock him up, boys."

Luffy soon found himself locked up in a steel cage with a party going on around him. How dare they eat in front of him while he's hungry. He wanted to eat too! Wanting in on the food, he stretched a hand to take out his knife from its holder, cut the ropes tying him, and stretched an arm towards a chunk of meat. These pirates were stupid for not taking his weapons from him in the first place, so it's their loss.

Just before he could touch the meat, a cannon went off. His arm snapped back as he saw the aftermath of the cannon tearing through the buildings. Buggy then told Nami to fire the cannon at Luffy to celebrate her joining his crew.

"It's fine. Go ahead and fire it," Luffy said, seeing that she was conflicted. It wouldn't hurt him anyway because he's made of rubber.

"See," Buggy sneered, "Even your boss is ready to end his pitiful life. Now, fire it."

Nami looked around at the other pirates around her, cheering for her, urging her to light the rope to the cannon.

"Hey, newbie, this is how you light a cannon," a pirate came up behind her to take the matches out of her hand.

Before she knew it, Nami had her hidden staff out and knocked the pirate out before he could light the fuse. This isn't what she wanted, but she couldn't just let an innocent person die before her, even if that person is a pirate. Now Buggy's Pirates are going to kill her.

"Oh? So now you're going to help me?" Luffy asked.

"No! My body just moved on its own!" She shrieked at him.

"You dare to make a fool of me?" Buggy ground out. "Men! Kill her and her boss."

Luffy sat in his cage and watched Nami fend off a few swordsmen with her bo, impressed that she was able to fight. Though, he should have known better. A thief should be able to defend herself. He cheered her on as she fought. Zoro should be here soon. Luffy could already feel his presence coming closer to them along with three others.

He saw the pirate that went to light the cannon. No biggie, but Nami also saw it. Panicking and not knowing what else to do, she dropped her weapon to grab the fuse, not thinking it would burn her hands. Now that she was defenseless, the pirates decided to gang up on her.

Seeing that Nami was about to be killed, he yells for Zoro, hoping the man makes it there in time. And he does, just in the nick of time. "Zoro!" he cheered as his swordsman holds off the other pirates from killing Nami.

"Just how many of you does it take to take down one girl?" Zoro sighed as the pirates he stopped were too gobsmacked to answer. Instead, he turned to ask Nami, "You okay there?"

"Ye-yeah," Nami answered, out of breath from the adrenaline rush.

As the pirates around them talked about having the Pirate Hunter Zoro there to take their heads, Zoro turned to ask Luffy, "What the hell happened? You get caught by a bird, and now I find you in a cage. Is this your idea of fun?"

"The flying wasn't really fun, but it sure was interesting," Luffy laughed as if he wasn't trapped in a cage. "You think you can cut the cage down?"

"So you're the Pirate Hunter Zoro. Are you here for my head?" Buggy said, coming up to the swordsman.

"Not interested. I've quit that line of business."

"But I have some interest. You see, if I take your head, my name will become more famous," the clown captain said as he tossed his many throwing knives around.

Zoro really didn't want to deal with this right now. He just wanted to get his captain and get off this island already, but the cheers and taunts from the pirates around him wouldn't let him. "Fine, if that's what you want." Zoro turned to face the charging captain, only to easily cut him to pieces. "He died real easy," he said, surprised that a captain was this weak.

With the captain down, Zoro started walking towards his own captain, thinking how creepy it was that the pirates around him are laughing. He gave the cage a quick glance over on his way. "These steel bars won't slice," he answered his captain's previous question, though the boy wasn't paying attention to him but to what was behind him.

Luffy's eyes widened. "Zoro, look out!" he warned.

Zoro turned to look behind him, which kept the flying hand, holding the throwing knife, from hitting anything vital. It pierced his side instead. "Dammit! What the hell is that?" he panted from the pain.

"I ate the Bara Bara no Mi. No matter how many times you cut me, you can't kill me," Buggy laughed as he put himself back together.

"Stabbing people in the back is dirty, you big nose!" Luffy shouted from his cage.

"Who are you calling big nose?!"

Luffy caught the knife that was thrown at him with his mouth, crushing it between his teeth. "I swear I'm going beat you up," he said with a smile.

"How do you plan on taking me down in this situation? Guys, laugh at him."

"Like this," he coated his hand with haki and punched the top of the cage, freeing himself. "Zoro, run!" With Zoro injured and losing blood fast, there was no way they could fight. Even Luffy knew that he can't fight this many while protecting Zoro and Nami. They have get away from there first, and they can fight later.

"Huh?" Zoro gave his captain a confused look. He couldn't believe his captain actually stayed in the cage when he could have gotten out anytime he wanted to.

"Nami, light!" Luffy ordered as he pushed the cannon to face towards Buggy's Pirate crew.

"Wha-" Nami was brought out from her shock at Luffy's order.

"Light! Hurry!" They need the distraction in order to get away.

"R-right!" She hurried to light the cannon, then ran after Luffy, who was carrying Zoro over his shoulder. "For such a scrawny kid, you sure are strong."

"Of course, I'm strong," Luffy said as he turned his head to look at her, jumping to the next roof without looking at where he's going to land, jostling Zoro as he did so.

"Careful!" Zoro grunted in pain.

"Oh, right," Luffy said as if he'd forgotten that Zoro was injured. He could feel the blood seeping into his vest. A doctor would be nice right now. The young captain had no idea what to do with a stab wound, only that it needs to be covered in bandages, something he doesn't have. It's too bad he couldn't bring Chopper with him to East Blue.

They jumped over a few more rooftops before they come to a stop on a dirt road, where Nami promptly smacked Luffy on the back of his head, causing his head to bounce back and forth. "If you could have gotten out of that cage yourself, why didn't you do so earlier?" she screeched.

"I thought you wanted me to stay in there," he shrugged the shoulder that Zoro wasn't on. "Oh~ A dog!" He ignored Zoro's yelp at being dropped and went to inspect the dog.

"Blood," Zoro moaned tiredly from the ground, "I don't have enough blood for this." Luffy wasn't careful while jumping the rooftops at all, even after he'd yelled at his captain to be careful. Now, most of the blood was probably on his captain's yellow vest, and it didn't seem like Luffy even felt the stickiness of it.

"Hey! What are you youngsters doing out here?" an old man wearing an odd-looking armor called out to them. Once he reached them, he placed a bowl of dog food down in front of the dog and looked at them, his eyes landing on Luffy in worry. "Look at you. You kids must have had a run-in with those pirates."

"Who are you?" Luffy asked as he tilted his head in thought with his hand halfway toward the dog. He didn't even give the man time to answer as he rubbed his stomach. "I'm hungry. Do you have food? Oh, and can you help Zoro?" he pointed to Zoro, as if helping his bleeding swordsman was just an afterthought.

"I'm Boodle, the village chief. You can call me Mayor. My house is just right there," Boodle pointed to the building right next door. "I can get you something to eat there, but there isn't much I can do to help your friend, though. Our doctors are all hiding at the other end of the island. As a matter of fact, it's probably safer if I just take you all there."

"I'll be fine after some sleep," Zoro waved it off, knowing that Luffy wouldn't want to go into hiding anyway.

After failing to persuade Zoro to go to see the island's doctor, Boodle took them to his house and placed Zoro on the couch, where he immediately started to snore. The village chief turned around to show the other two where the kitchen was, only to find that they didn't even wait for him. Luffy was already in the fridge, eating whatever he could find.

"Hey," Nami said from her seat at the table, "what's with the dog? He's just sitting there."

"That's Shushu. He guarding the pet food store that belonged to my friend. I just came to give him his food." The village chief went on to tell them more about Shushu and his friend. "I've tried to take him to the shelter where everyone else is a few times, but he won't leave."

"Maybe he's waiting for his master to come back," Nami suggested.

"Nah," Luffy said with his mouth full. "He's just doing what he was told. He's guarding his master's treasure. He's a good guy. I like him."

Boodle returned Luffy's grin and nodded. "That's right. Shushu may be a dog, but he's smart. I'm sure he already knows his master is long gone, but he's still going to watch over the shop for him."

Luffy was too busy stuffing his face that he didn't notice the new presence until they all heard the loud roar and Shushu's frantic barks.

"It can't be-" the village chief shouted before running to the door with Nami and Luffy behind him. Just before they reached the door, a yelp was heard and the building around them shook.

When the three of them made it out, Name saw the dog's battered body in front of her. "What happened?" she asked as she gently picked a badly injured Shushu up.

"It's Beast Tamer Mohji from Buggy's Pirates. We need to hide," Boodle said as he pulled Nami along with him toward an alleyway, leaving Luffy to stand and stare at the pet food store.

It didn't take long for Mohji and the lion to come out. "Oh? You're the kid that was caught. How did you manage to get yourself out of the cage, I wonder. Captain Buggy is pretty mad at you right now. You guys have committed a serious crime."

"So?" Luffy said as he picked his nose.

"In case you don't know how scary I am, I'll let you know. I am the Buggy Pirate's first mate, Mohji. There's no animal in this world that I can't tame. Now, tell me where Roronoa Zoro is, and I won't kill you," Mohji said, positive that he'd scared the boy in front of him with his skill. It doesn't hurt that he's sitting on an actual lion. Who wouldn't be afraid of a lion?

"Not telling."

The Beast Tamer nearly fell off the lion at the nonchalant answer. "You must be out of your mind," he said angrily. "I already gave you your chance. Kill him, Richie!"

Luffy merely grinned as the lion brought his large paws down towards him with a roar. Before the paw could connect, it stopped just short of the straw hat.

"Richie, what's wrong? Kill him."

The lion whimpered, looking back at his master, then back at the boy he's supposed to kill. He wanted to listen to his master, but his instinct was telling him that killing this boy is a death sentence. His paw wavered as Luffy looked at him straight in the eyes.

"Sit," Luffy commanded, and sit he did.

"What did you do to Richie?" Mohji panicked as he saw that his lion was scared of the kid in front of them. If lions could sweat, he's sure Richie would be sweating buckets just about now.

"You're not the only one that can tame animals," Luffy snickered. "Now, then, Richie, toss that asshole as far away as you can."

Richie gave another whimper before picking up Mohji with his teeth and tossed him up in the air, then swatted his master with his paw as hard as he could.

"Good boy," Luffy praised as he petted his mane. "Now it's your turn." Luffy pulled both his arms far back before letting loose a "Gomu Gomu no Bazooka!" He gave a laugh as he shaded his eyes to watch the lion fly off.

"What just happened?" Nami asked as she and Boodle came out of their hiding place where they saw the whole thing.

"I tamed my first lion," the young captain laughed, only to be interrupted by Boodle's outburst.

"It's not fair! It's just not fair! Even Shushu and this kid have been fighting for us! How can I, the Mayor, sit by and let my home be destroyed without lifting a finger?"

"Calm down, Mayor!" Nami tried.

"No! There are some fights a man cannot back down from! Am I wrong, kid?"

"Nope."

"Don't egg him on," Nami yelled at Luffy with a punch to the head.

"We made this town!" Boodle continued. "This town and its citizens are my treasure! What kind of mayor fails to protect his own town! I will fight!"

Neither Nami nor Luffy had a chance to say anything as the row of buildings next to them got destroyed by a cannonball. The wind from the projectile blew them off their feet.

"My house!" Boodle cried out at the same time as Luffy's, "Zoro!"

"Zoro, you still alive in there?" Luffy called out into the smoke as soon as they got back on their feet.

As soon as the smoke cleared, they saw Zoro sitting on the ground with a hand to his forehead. "Man, talk about a rude awakening," he grumbled.

"You're alive!" Luffy cheered.

"That does it! I am this town's Mayor, and no one messes with my town without my permission!" the village chief yelled before storming off towards Buggy's hideout.

"The mayor was crying," Nami said, astonished at the determination Boodle showed.

"Really? I didn't notice," Luffy snickered.

"Looks like things are getting exciting," Zoro smiled at the anticipation.

"This isn't the time to be laughing!" Name yelled at them. Really. Pirates are horrible.

"It's ok. I like that old man. I won't let him die," the young captain assured Nami.

Nami turned on him to lecture him on his recklessness. "How can you be so confident to just stand there and laugh?"

"We're going to Grand Line. You should join us. I need a navigator, and you need that map to get us to Grand Line. Oh, and you can have all the treasures you find," Luffy stuck his hand out for a handshake to seal the deal.

Nami thought about it before coming to her decision. "I refuse to become a pirate. We'll call it an alliance. We'll both work towards our individual goals," she said, slapping his hand, her sign of an agreement. It wouldn't hurt to sail with someone strong to protect her until she reaches her goal of 100 million beli. It shouldn't take too long now. Buggy's Pirate Crew was bound to have a lot of treasure.

They caught up to Boodle in time for Luffy to grab Buggy's detached hand from the mayor's throat.

"I'm here to keep my promise to you," Luffy said to Buggy, squeezing the older captain's hand. "I'm going to beat you up."

"You morons! So you've come without fear on your own free will," Buggy roared in anger as he tried to summon his hand back to him where he was on top of a bar's roof. The scrawny kid was a lot stronger than he looked. "I'm going to kill you all!"

None of the three paid Buggy's rant any attention, looking to Boodle as he spoke. "What did you three come here for? Stay out of my way. This is my fight. I'm the one who must protect this town! Don't interfere!"

"What the hell was that for?" Nami screeched at Luffy for slamming the mayor's head into a building's wall, knocking the old man unconscious.

"He's in the way?" Luffy tilted his head, unsure as to why he was being yelled at.

Nami could only stare dumbfounded at the easy-going response before she smacked him on the back of his head. "Don't do anything unnecessary!"

"That was good thinking," Zoro backed up his captain. "If you left him, he'd charge in recklessly. It's safer if he was unconscious."

Luffy took that as a sign that he didn't do anything wrong and turned his attention back to Buggy. The young captain sucked in some air in preparation. "Hey, you, HUGE, UGLY, RED NOSE!"

There was a collective gasp from the Buggy Crew, before Buggy lost it. "FIRE THE SPECIAL BUGGY BALL!"

Nami and Zoro couldn't believe Luffy actually taunted the enemy so readily. They both panicked as they looked around for a place to hide from the deadly cannon.

"Did you think that just because you fired some special cannon ball that I'd be scared?" Luffy grinned at the other captain, not at all perturbed about the ammunition coming his way.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" Nami screeched as she ran away from the kid.

"Hey, Luffy, dodge it!" Zoro yelled as he, too, tried to run to someplace safe. He didn't make it very far when his captain started to suck in a large amount of air.

"Gomu Gomu no Balloon," Luffy finished his attack just as the cannon hit him, only to bounce off his inflated body and back towards Buggy and his crew, blowing up the entire building. "Yay! Their number has decreased. Now we can start," Luffy said with determined excitement. This should level out the playing field so that he doesn't have to go all out.

"You could have said something earlier," Zoro breathed a sigh of relief.

"Explain yourself! I don't understand this at all. First, you took out a freaking _lion_ and now this! This isn't humanly possible! How the hell did you swell up like a balloon?!" Nami's nerves were shot from the fear of almost dying.

"Gomu Gomu Balloon," Luffy said as if it were an answer.

"I'm not asking for the name!" Nami screeched.

The sound of laughter had them all turn their heads back to the destruction. There they saw from the smoke three bodies standing up. Only after the smoke finally cleared enough for them to see properly, they were just bodies being held up to protect the people behind them.

"You're just chatting around as if you're not scared," one of the people behind the bodies laughed.

"Using their crew as shields!" Nami couldn't believe her eyes. They may be pirates, but she still couldn't believe there were people that could actually use their own crew to save their own lives. She'd always thought that pirates protected their own or at least the ones she knew.

"This is the biggest humiliation we've ever received under our flag, Captain," said the other person hiding behind the third body.

"I'm so mad, words fail me," Buggy growled with a smile as he finally tossed aside the two bodies he used. "Mind telling me how you managed to toss the Special Buggy Ball back at us, huh?"

"I'm a rubber man, see?" Luffy stretched his cheeks to show them. "I ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi."

"The Devil's Fruit," Buggy said thoughtfully. He was surprised to see another Devil's Fruit user in East Blue. It's almost unheard of in the most peaceful of the Blue Seas. Even he got his in Grand Line.

"I'm the Buggy Pirate's Chief of Staff, Cabaji the Acrobat! I'll avenge the pain you've caused," a man with a scarf covering his face riding a unicycle called as he came towards Luffy.

"If it's swords, I'm all for it," Zoro said as he intercepted the sword before it could touch his captain.

"It's an honor, Roronoa Zoro. As a swordsman, I get to slay you," Cabaji said.

Luffy wanted to tell Zoro to sit this fight out because the wound he received from Buggy hadn't healed yet, but he could tell that the swordsman wouldn't let this fight go, even if he told him to stop. Instead, he stood back to watch them fight on the sidelines. He had a feeling that Zoro wouldn't want him to butt in on his fight.

He had to clench his fist to keep himself from punching the stupid acrobat's face for cheating. The fire attack was cool, but no real swordsman would attack an injured person's wound so openly like that. That's clearly cheating, and Luffy wanted nothing more than to punch this guy's face for hurting Zoro like that. Repeatedly at that! Luffy stayed quiet, even when Nami asked why he wasn't going to help his friend. There was no need. Zoro will win. He knows it. Zoro would never lose to a cheater.

Luffy was happy when Zoro finally landed a hit. Though, it was with his fist, rather than with his sword, but a hit is a hit. The young captain had to flinch when his swordsman made his wound worse by slicing it. At least now Zoro looks like he's getting serious. He'd finally pulled out his third sword.

"Go, Zoro!" Luffy cheered enthusiastically.

Since it looked like the tables had turned, Nami took this chance to sneak away to steal Buggy's treasure.

Luffy let her go and kept watching the fight. He didn't even let Buggy ruin Zoro's fight. When the other captain let his hand fly to hold Zoro in place so Cabaji could finish him off, Luffy stomped on the hand before it could reach Zoro.

"Don't interfere with Zoro's fight," Luffy glared at Buggy.

Zoro finally finished his fight and fell to the ground, claiming that he needed sleep.

"Don't worry. You go to sleep. I'll finish this off," Luffy assured him.

"Who the hell are you guys?" Buggy shrieked.

"I'm Luffy, the one that's going to be the Pirate King."

Buggy then went on a rant about how a no-name pirate could be the Pirate King, much less make it to Grand Line. "And as a matter of fact, just seeing that stupid hat of yours reminds of that idiot with red hair," he grumbled.

"Yup," Luffy took his hat off and looked at it. "I got it from Shanks. It's a symbol of our promise. He told me about you, too. I still can't believe the both of you sailed with Roger. That's so cool!"

"That idiot probably has nothing good to say anyway. He was always a pain in my ass," Buggy let out a chuckle. "Even though you're made of rubber, there are still some things that won't bounce off you."

"Yup, that's right," Luffy agreed.

Buggy kicked the back of his shoes on the ground, causing small knives to come out on each side and sent his lower half spinning towards the young captain. "Bara Bara Windmill!"

"Now that you're in the air, there's no way for you to dodge," Buggy sneered once Luffy jumped up to avoid the spinning legs and sent some throwing knives to finish the kid off.

"Of course, I can," Luffy said as he stretched an arm to grab a hold of a pillar to pull him out of the way of the knives.

The young captain then threw a punch that was dodged, so he let it stretch a little further to grab a building behind Buggy. When the other captain grabbed his stretched-out arm, stating how Luffy's attack is full of weakness, Luffy let go of his first pillar and flew straight towards the clown with his arm ready to hook it around Buggy's neck. Buggy's neck popped off his body, rather than being grabbed by Luffy.

Luffy ended up landing in the rubble of the bar he blew up. This whole separating into parts was tricky. Luffy couldn't decide what to do that wouldn't be considered too much. He sensed that Nami had come back and was watching them fight. Ace and Sabo wouldn't be happy if he revealed too much this early into his travels.

But then Buggy shot his hand holding knives in between the fingers at him. Luffy grabbed it before it could hit him, but he didn't anticipate the hand would detach itself from the wrist he held. He managed to move his head out of the way, but one of the knives cut part of his face and his hat.

The young captain took off his hat to inspect it and felt his anger grow. "You BASTARD!" Luffy sent Buggy a glare. "How dare you mess up my hat!"

For some reason, Buggy could actually feel the anger rolling off the kid. There's no way some East Blue brat could have it. Could he? But then the feeling left soon after, causing him to think he imagined it.

Luffy took a deep breath to calm himself. "This hat is my promise and my treasure," he said calmly.

"If that hat is so precious to you, then you should take better care of it," Buggy laughed. He threw a knife for the kid to duck and shot out his hand again with three knives in between the fingers, piercing the middle of the straw hat.

He brought his hand back, along with the hat. After turning it around and looking at it, he finally plucked it off the knives and threw it to the ground and stomped on it. "I hate that idiot. Just looking at this hat makes me remember all those times he tormented me."

That does it. No one talks bad about his friends, and no one is allowed to touch his hat!

Luffy charged at Buggy, who anticipating another arm to the neck, separated his head and neck from his body just like last time. Instead of what he anticipated, he received a knee to the midsection instead. Not just a normal kneeing, but a haki infused knee! Buggy can't believe a brat like this could know haki already.

Not giving the clown captain time to catch his breath, Luffy gave him a kick in the groin then sent him flying off the island with a Gomu Gomu no Bazooka.

With the offender now gone, Luffy picked up his hat and stared at it miserably. There were holes on the top of the hat where the knives were stabbed through. At least it looked like most of the damage is on the top. The ribbon area looked fine. He'd check on his treasures later. Right now, he needed to fix the hat, his promise, somehow. It's too bad he never learned to sew from Kobato. Ace wouldn't let him touch a needle after stabbing his fingers too many times.

"I can fix that for you," Nami said softly as she approached him. She felt bad after seeing his face..

"Can you really?" Luffy gave her a hopeful look.

She looked away in embarrassment and crossed her arms. "Don't get the wrong idea. I'm still not joining your crew. It's thanks for giving me time to steal the treasures."

Luffy gave a chuckle, happy that his hat can be fixed and went over to wake Zoro up by smacking him on the face a few times.

"Huh? Did you finish the fight?"

"Yup! We got the treasures, and Nami's going to fix my hat!"

"Huh?" Zoro gave him a confused look before shaking his head. "Never mind."

Luffy gave another chuckle before going to wake the mayor. He hadn't taken a step away from Zoro when the other villagers started to show up.

The three of them ended up having to run for their lives, with Luffy laughing the whole time, when the young captain complicated things by telling that he was the one to knock Boodle unconscious and admitting they were pirates. Not knowing the whole story, the villagers thought the three of them were part of Buggy's Pirate Crew.

"That's a nice boat," Luffy commented once they reached the pier. "You think we can all fit in it?"

"It's not mine. I stole it from some of Buggy's men," Nami said as she loaded her bag of treasure into the boat. "I'm pretty sure it's big enough for the three of us. I'll get rid of Buggy's mark later."

"Whatever. Let's get out of here," Zoro said as he got on the boat he and Luffy shared to toss Luffy's bag, the only belonging they have, onto Nami's boat.

-*/-*/-*/-*/-*/

Omake

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LEFT THE BAG OF TREASURE BACK ON THE ISLAND!" Nami yelled once they were far away from the island. She was sure Luffy grabbed the second bag when they ran.

"Well, half of their town was destroyed. I thought they'd need the money to fix it up," Luffy tilted his head, not sure what he did wrong. He's surprised that Zoro could sleep through her yelling. She's loud! Probably because he's still healing. Izo did say that sleep helps with healing.

Nami could only sigh and think this pirate captain was strange and unpirate-like. "Fine. Give me your hat."

"Thanks, Nami," he said as he handed her his hat, only to take it back. "Oh, hold on. Need to check if everything else is safe."

Nami watched as Luffy turned the hat upside down and shook it a few times, her eyes widened as pebbles, gold accessories, torn papers, and other things fell out. "You had treasures in there?! Is that why you won't let anyone touch your hat?"

"Yeah. These are things from my family, my treasure. The hat is my treasure, too." He handed the hat to Nami as he sat down to inspect his treasures.

The thought of stealing some of those crossed her mind, but even she isn't heartless enough to part a kid from something his family gave him if they have sentimental values.

"All right! Everything looks good," Luffy cheered as he stood up. "Now I need to clean my clothes. Zoro's blood is getting sticky. Man, I need a bath." He took off his vest and dipped it in the ocean and brought it back up, then frowned. He never was good with laundry.

"I don't think you can wash all that blood off," Nami commented as she focused on sewing the hat back together. "Your shorts too," she said after seeing the stains on them.

"Oh, okay," Luffy shrugged, tossing his vest into the sea, before doing the same with his shorts. He went to his sac of belongings and dug around for something to wear.

Nami finished stitching the hat and watched Luffy take one thing after another out of his bag, until he put one piece of fabric on top of the pile he'd taken out. "Luffy, wait." She walked over to the pile and picked up the blue dress. "Isn't this a dress? Why do you have one? You didn't steal this from some poor girl, did you?"

"No, of course not! That's mine. Sabo bought it for me," he huffed with his fists to his side. He's not happy at being accused of stealing the dress from someone.

"Sabo?"

"My brother."

"I see," she said thoughtfully, before walking back to Luffy's pile of treasure to pick out a gold hair clip with a flower on it. She took a quick look over the treasures and nearly drooled at the amount of gold and gems he had. She walked back over to him and told him to put his arms up. After he did so, she slipped the dress over his head and clipped his bangs to the side.

Nami took a step back to get a better look at Luffy. "Hmm. Not bad. You actually look good in a dress. You do this often?" Her mind was thinking that she found something fun to do to pass the time when she wasn't stealing.

"Yeah. My family likes to dress me up. I've got lots of pretty dresses and clothes at home. I didn't bring them because they're too complicated. I just brought stuff I know how to put on myself. I'm so used to my brothers dressing me that I don't know how to button those fancy shirts they like. It's fun to dress up," Luffy smiled at her before giving her a stern look. "But I'm not an okama. I'm a man. Izo said so."

Nami laughed at the childish way he said that. "If you say so."

Hours later, Zoro woke up to see an unknown girl on the boat. He rubbed his eyes, thinking he was seeing things, but she was still there. "Hey," he called out, "What are you doing here?" They were in the middle of the sea. How did she get on? Did Luffy pick up a straggler?

"Oh, Zoro, you're awake! How's your wound? Is it better, yet?"

Now that the girl had turned to face him, he saw that it's Luffy. Zoro choked on his spit at the surprise. He can't believe he's sailing under an okama!

-*/-*/-*/-*/-*/

 **A/N:** I am so sorry for taking so long with this chapter! Things has gotten weird here. My night and day got switched somehow, and I'm now wide awake at night and sleeping during the day. I'm not quite sure how that happened. It's so quiet and peaceful at night. The only problem is trying to not wake anyone else up.

Anyway, what do you guys think of this chapter? Is the story going okay? Is it boring? ヾ(｡﹏｡)ﾉﾞ


	5. Chapter 5

Beta by **Navigator101**.

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

"I am the Great Captain Usopp! If you are thinking of attacking the town, think again! I have eighty million followers," was what greeted them at the next island by a lanky teen atop a hill with three kids who ran not too long after the pirate trio landed.

"You're lying," Nami called him out, causing Luffy and Zoro to laugh at the teen's surprised reaction.

"You're funny," Luffy laughed.

"Don't insult me. I'm an extremely proud man! I've got so much pride that people call me 'Usopp the Proud,'" Usopp yelled at the kid. He'd yell at the other guy for laughing too, but sadly, Usopp wasn't brave enough to yell at someone walking around with three swords. He may be scared, but there's no way he's going to let these pirates into town.

"Don't worry, we're not going to kill anyone here," Luffy said after he finished laughing. "I'm Luffy. This guy is Zoro, and that's Nami."

"As if I'd believe you. Buggy Pirates are known to be cruel," Usopp pointed an accusing finger at them.

"Buggy?" Luffy tilted his head in confusion.

"The sail, Luffy," Nami jerked a thumb towards the boat they came in. "We didn't have another sail to replace that one, remember?"

"Oh," Luffy said as he hit his fist into his palm. They never took down the sail with Buggy's mark on it.

"Don't worry about Buggy," Zoro assured Usopp. "Luffy already took care of him. We stole the boat."

"That kid? Does that mean you're not pirates?" Usopp asked hopefully.

"Nah, we're pirates," Luffy grinned. "But really, we won't do anything to the town. We just want food. I'm really hungry."

Usopp finally decided that there's no way these people were that dangerous if they have an innocent-looking kid with them. The only pirate-looking person there was the green-haired swordsman. Thinking they didn't look too dangerous, he led them to the village restaurant.

"So, you're looking for crew members and a ship?" Usopp asked as they ate.

"Yeah, that's right," Luffy said as he happily ate his third plate of salad.

"Well, as you can tell, we don't have any big ships here or anything. We're a small village, but I know someone who has one. I just happen to know the owner of the mansion up on that hill," he pointed out the window. He went on to tell them about the young lady of the mansion.

"Hey, lady! More salad!" Luffy called out after Usopp finished his story.

"And sake!" Zoro added to the order.

"Are you even listening!?" Usopp yelled at them.

"Luffy, you should eat something more than just salad if you're hungry," Nami said in concern. As much as she claimed that she's only sailing with them and not joining them, Luffy had grown on her. She wonders if this is what it's like to have a younger sibling. "Try eating meat or something with protein in it. It'll fill you up faster," she said before calling out for another dish for Luffy.

"Mmm," Luffy gave his dish an unsure look before poking at it with his fork.

"It's not bad." It was the same thing she ordered for herself. Satisfied after Luffy took a bite, she turned her attention back to the topic at hand. "Maybe we should find a ship at the next stop then," she said, feeling bad about asking a sick person for a ship.

"By the way," Usopp said, "you said you were looking for crew members, right?"

"Yeah?" Zoro answered since Luffy didn't say anything. He raised an eyebrow at the way his captain looked like he was concentrating on eating, rather than inhaling it like he did with the salads.

"You can make _me_ your captain," Usopp said confidently.

"No way," Nami and Zoro said together.

"Hey! At least think about it!"

"Yeah, no. Luffy's the captain," Zoro nodded his head towards Luffy, before narrowing his eyes at Usopp. "And before you say it again, Luffy's not a kid."

"Uh, ok," Usopp averted his eyes before he remembered he needed to be somewhere and left them.

"Really, Luffy," Nami sighed, "just finish your food already. It's getting cold." She even took a bite out of it to taste it. There was nothing wrong with it, and it tasted the same as when she ate it.

Luffy said nothing and continued to concentrate on his food. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. His stomach was deciding on whether it's okay to keep in there or not.

He had just finished his plate when the three kids from earlier came running to their table. "What have you done with our Captain?" they demanded with their wooden swords raised.

"Ugh, my stomach," Luffy said as he laid his forehead on the table. His stomach was still too busy struggling to digest the meal he just had to even bother listening to the newcomers. He'll just let Nami and Zoro deal with them. Right now, he's got a rebellious belly to take care of. Maybe if he willed it, all the food will stay. The meal was a little too oily for his sensitive stomach to handle.

"Your stomach!?" the kids shouted. "You mean, the Captain's…" Nami giggled at what she was sure the kids were thinking.

"If it's your captain you want," Zoro gave the kids an evil smile, "we just ate him."

"Aahhh! Onibaba!"

"Why are you looking at me!?" Nami screeched at the kids, then gave a glare at Zoro for laughing so hard. "Your captain went somewhere, saying 'it's time.' We have no idea where he went."

"Oh," the kid with the green helmet said as if remembering something, "if it's around this time, he should be at the mansion."

"You mean the mansion with the bedridden girl?" Nami asked.

They all turned to watch Luffy slowly move his head up from the table, the first movement he'd made since the boys accused them of eating their captain. He gave them a determined look before stating, "Let's go find Usopp." The queasy feeling in his stomach wasn't as bad now. Maybe it would go away without him having to take his medicine.

Zoro was the only one to notice that Luffy was a little pale but didn't say anything about it.

"But we already know where he is," Nami pointed out.

"Right, he's at the giant house that might have a ship for us."

"Luffy, we just talked about this. I don't feel right asking a sick person for a ship. We can get a ship at the next island," Nami reasoned.

"No. We're getting that ship. I need a bath," Luffy crossed his arms, letting her know that he's not taking 'no' for an answer.

She gave a sigh before getting up. "Fine," was all she said as the rest of them got up to leave the restaurant.

As the three pirates walked, the children explained why Usopp visited the mansion frequently. They thought it was admirable that Usopp wanted to cheer the sick girl with his lies, even though the way the boys explained it didn't sound very good at the beginning. Just on that alone, Luffy was thinking about recruiting the long-nosed boy on his crew. He'd be fun to have around. Stories were always good. It'd be like at home, where his Pops and Grandpops liked to tell them stories.

Once they reached the mansion, the boys showed them the secret entrance that Usopp liked to use. The found the other teen easily once they got through the bushes. The girl in the window was laughing at something Usopp said from the base of a tree.

Luffy interrupted them when he stumbled as he walked over to them.

"Are you okay?" the girl asked worriedly.

"They're fine. They're fine," Usopp quickly assured her, not wanting to alarm her and not wanting her to call for her butler. "They've heard how great I was, so they came the join the Great Usopp Pirate Crew."

Luffy slowly pushed himself upward, trying to get his breathing back under control. The food from earlier wasn't wanting to settle right and is now rebelling again. Instead of getting back on his feet, he decided to just sit where he was.

"No, that's not it," Luffy quickly shot down and waved a hand at Zoro's worried look at him. "We have a favor to ask."

"A favor?" the girl asked. "From me?"

"Yeah. We're looking for a big ship -"

"What are you people doing here?" a stern voice cut Luffy off from finishing his request. "You're trespassing and causing problems for us."

"Klahador, these people are -" the girl tried to explain before being cut off by the man that showed up.

"Not right now," the butler-looking guy said. "I will listen to your explanation later. I'd like for you people to leave. Or do you have something to say?"

Luffy didn't like the condescending way the man was talking to them, but he'd put up with it if it meant he could get himself a ship. He really needed a bath, damn it! "Yeah. We're looking for a ship -"

"Absolutely not!" the man interrupted again. "Usopp!" he called out. "I've heard rumors about you from the villagers."

Luffy really didn't like the way this guy was talking to his about-to-be-new-crewmate. It was just making his stomach even more queasy. Maybe he'd just puke it all up right here to spite the man. That might just make his stomach feel better too.

Oh, now the stupid man was bad mouthing Usopp's dad. Luffy could tell that Usopp didn't like that at all. The teen's demeanor changed, and Luffy liked what he was seeing. Usopp was no longer the scaredy cat that met them when they first landed. He was now a brave person, defending his dad. This was the person Usopp would be in the future if he had someone to push him in the right direction. The punch to the butler's face wasn't strong, but it was perfect.

Luffy wanted him. He felt proud when Usopp defended his dad's dream.

"I'm the son of a pirate!" Usopp shouted proudly.

And here, Luffy had enough. The hate, and anger from both parties was not sitting well with his stomach. Not to mention every time the butler mentioned pirates, there was a tint of something else behind his words. Better to just let it all out and get away from the negative feelings. Nami was getting worried about the situation.

"Luffy!" Zoro and Nami shouted in panic when their captain just dropped to his hands and knees and puked.

Nami knelt to rub Luffy's back, not knowing what else to do. "Are you okay? Do you need anything? Water? What's wrong?" She asked in a panic.

Zoro knew his captain hadn't been looking too good since they left the restaurant but didn't say anything, as it wasn't his place. Now, he knew better. He should have made his captain take a rest before coming. He should have been the responsible one since his captain was much younger than he was, practically a kid.

Because of his carelessness, his captain was now puking … blood? Panicking, Zoro knelt next to Nami to place a hand on Luffy's shoulder as he heaved and hacked up his lunch.

"Hey," Usopp said with fear in his voice, abandoning his argument with Klahadore, "are you okay? What's wrong? Do you need a doctor?" He had to bring his head closer to Luffy when he couldn't hear the response. "What was that?"

Luffy rolled his head back to lean on his swordsman's shoulder. "Out. Far away from here. Too much," he said breathily.

With that Zoro quickly picked him up and walked straight out the gate with Nami, Usopp and the kids following.

"What's that?" Nami asked as Luffy took out a bottle from his pocket.

"Medicine," he answered, shaking out a couple of colorful balls and stuck them in his mouth. He then made himself comfortable in Zoro's arms. "Better in ten minutes."

"What happened?" Zoro asked. He was very worried about his life as a pirate with this captain now. It didn't seem as easy as it should be. Though, now that he thought about it, the note that was in his pocket should have been a good enough warning.

"Was it the food?" Usopp asked worriedly. "They usually make the best food here."

"No," Luffy answered with a sigh, rubbing his stomach. "My stomach doesn't like some foods. It needs to be cooked a certain way, or it'll all come back up. But I did manage to keep it down longer than usual," Luffy flashed them a smile as if that was something to be proud of.

"Why didn't you say so?!" Nami screeched, wanting to punch him.

"I thought it would be okay. It's been a while since that happened, and the food really did taste good, and I was sooo hungry, and I was told to never waste food," he whined before turning pained again. "I thought I could actually keep it down, but then there was so much yelling, and my stomach gave up the fight."

"Is this far enough for you?" Zoro asked, looking down at his captain.

"Mmm…can we go there?" Luffy pointed to the ocean on the other side of a small forest. "I want ocean air."

The children had left them to go home before they entered the forest, stating that they needed to be home soon.

Zoro set Luffy down by a tree overlooking the cliff to the ocean and sat down next to him. Nami and Usopp joined them at another nearby tree. Luffy took a deep breath of sea breeze and stretched his arms over his head. "That feels good. I feel better now. Thanks."

"You should tell us these things so that we know what to expect," Zoro said, looking to the ocean. "We're sailing together now, so we have to watch each other's back."

"Yeah, sorry. Didn't want anyone to worry. I got enough of that at home," Luffy chuckled sheepishly.

"It's not funny," Zoro fumed with his arms crossed. "I saw you out eat me at Shells Town, and now, I see you puking up blood because of something you ate."

"I ate at that restaurant at Shells Town before. I think my brothers told the nice lady how to make my food, so it stayed down. I can't remember all the details, so I can't explain how it should be cooked."

"Anything else we need to know about you?" Nami asked with a pointed glare.

Luffy tilted his head in thought. "There's a lot of things," he shrugged before turning his head to look at Usopp. "Your dad's Yasopp, right?"

"Ho-how'd you know?"

"I've met him. He's sailing with Shanks and likes to talk about you. A lot. I mean, every time he gets drunk, we try to avoid him since you're all he talks about," Luffy laughed. "The ass said your dad was a pirate, and then I remembered where I heard your name from. I'm surprised I forgot your name with how many times I heard him talk about you. Your dad is one of the best sharpshooters I've ever met."

"He's with Akagami Shanks?! You've met him?" Usopp crawled over to sit in front of Luffy, wanting to hear more about his dad. "How did you meet him?"

Instead of telling him more about his dad, Luffy shoved Usopp aside and crawled over to the ledge and peered over. He had to shush them to be quiet when Nami asked what he saw. Together the four of them watched as the butler and a strange man with a goatee talked on the beach below them, revealing the plan to attack the village and kill Kaya to take over her inheritance.

Luffy slapped a hand over Usopp's mouth before he could make a noise of surprise, reminding him to keep quiet. The two parted ways after finishing up their plan, and Luffy finally lets Usopp go.

"We have to do something! We can't let them kill Kaya and attack the village!" Usopp screamed as he ran around them in circles before slumping down on to a rock. "I love this village. I want to protect everyone. How can I just watch everyone gets killed?" he cried.

"We'll make sure nothing happens to them," Luffy assured him. He wasn't at his best right now, otherwise, he'd just jump right down and beat the crap out of them. "Tomorrow morning. We'll wait for them to land first."

"That's Kuro of a Hundred Plans, captain of the Black Cat Pirates! He's supposed to be dead! He was supposed to have been caught by the Marines five years ago and executed. But he's still alive!" Usopp grabbed his hair with both hands. "What do we do? What _can_ we do? There's no way we can beat him."

Luffy placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a smile. "Don't worry. We're strong. I can beat him for you, just not right now." He placed a hand over his stomach with a strained smile. "I'll be better by morning."

"That's right, we've got this covered," Zoro said with a feral grin, hands on his swords.

"I'll leave the fighting to you boys. I'm going after the treasures," Nami smiled with her hands on her sides.

"But we don't even know which coast they're going to come from," Usopp said weakly, feeling overwhelmed and lost. His village and Kaya will be destroyed tomorrow, and he's too weak to do anything about it.

Luffy hummed as he closed his eyes to concentrate. "There," he pointed to the opposite coast where he felt the presence of multiple people in one place on the ocean.

"That's where our boat is!" Nami said, running towards their boat. "My treasure!"

Zoro stopped Luffy from following with a hand on his shoulder. "How are you sure they're that way?" he asked with a raised brow and suspicion in his voice.

"Haki," was all Luffy said as if that was an answer he'd understand and continued walking.

"Haki?"

"What's that?" Usopp asked walking on the other side of Luffy.

"Hmm…" Luffy hummed in thought with a finger and thumb under his chin. "Haki is haki. It's how I find people."

Zoro and Usopp shrugged and hoped he was right.

They reached the top of the slope where Luffy said the pirates would come and found Nami hiding a large sack behind some bushes.

"So, we'll just protect this slope with our lives and the village will be safe," Usopp said as they settled down to plan.

"Sounds easy," Luffy nodded. "We'll just sleep here tonight, and we'll be ready for them."

"That's easier said than done. What are you guys good at?" Usopp said as he made a mental plan, which happened to not include himself fighting.

"Cutting."

"Stretching."

"Stealing."

"Hiding."

"You have to fight too," Zoro and Nami shouted, bonking Usopp on the head.

Luffy laughed at them before telling Usopp, "You do what you can, and we'll back you up. Don't worry, you're braver than you think you are."

"Th-th-thank - oh no! The villagers! I have to warn the villagers and Kaya!" Usopp yelped before running off into town.

Night had already fallen when Usopp returned, bruised but not badly beaten. He dropped himself down next to Luffy. He was in so much shock that he didn't notice that Luffy was snuggled up to Nami. "I've lied so much that no one will listen to me, not even Kaya."

Luffy turned around to face Usopp and stretched his arm to wrap around his waist, pulling Usopp down to lay with him and into a hug. "Don't worry about it. We'll make sure the lie will stay a lie. Now go to sleep."

Usopp continued to mumble and sniffle about not being able to convince anyone to run and hide until Luffy was done with the negative feeling. Without warning, he gave Usopp a headbutt and gave a sigh of relief when it was quiet again.

Zoro chuckled at the sight of Luffy sandwiched in between Nami and Usopp and how Usopp was now being used as a teddy bear. He closed his eyes from where he sat not too far from them, where he had the best vantage point over the slope. His captain is young, but his captain is his captain. Zoro will be right where he'll know when the pirates come and warn them before the attack happened.

Luffy smiled to himself, knowing what Zoro was doing. It was like having Ace and Sabo with him. They liked protecting him because he's the youngest, even though they knew he could take care of himself. With that thought and the warmth of Nami and Usopp surrounding him, he felt safe enough to fall into a deep sleep, trusting Zoro to wake them in time.

-*/

Dawn, just before the sun had fully risen, Zoro opened his eyes when he sensed some movement where Luffy, Nami, and Usopp slept. He silently watched as Usopp sat up to rub his forehead where Luffy had headbutted him the night before. The swordsman snickered to himself when Usopp's eyes widened at seeing Nami and Luffy with their arms around each other, but he couldn't stop the full-blown laughter when the long-nosed teen shrieked and crawled backward away from them while apologizing.

Nami sat up and stretched before asking, "Is it time?"

While Luffy sat up, rubbed his eyes, and asked, "Is breakfast ready?" Instead of waiting for an answer, he pulled Nami back down to the ground to go back to sleep.

"Wake up, you idiot!" Nami yelled as she gave a punch to his head. "We have a village to save."

"Huh?" Luffy gave her a confused look before yawning and stretching his arms over his head. "Oh, Nami. Right. Save village."

"And what's wrong with you?" Nami asked Usopp, who was a good few feet away from them, on his butt and hands behind him, shaking in fear.

Usopp quickly sat on his knees and brought his hands and face to the ground. "I'm so sorry!"

"Huh?" both Nami and Luffy said in confusion.

Zoro held in his laugh. He knew how it looked to outsiders when two teens of opposite sex sleep together that closely. It didn't take him long to understand that Luffy doesn't see Nami that way, more like, he doesn't see Nami any differently as he saw Zoro. She was just another human being.

"He's sorry for sleeping with you," Zoro grinned.

"Oh. It's fine. Luffy was in between us," Nami waved off the concern.

"B-bu-but it's fine for you to sleep next to Luffy? That's indecent!" Usopp pointed at them.

"What's in-dee-sent?" Luffy asked Nami.

"He means, 'it's bad and shouldn't be done,'" she answered Luffy before looking at Usopp. "There's nothing indecent going on between us. I mean look at him. He's like a cute little brother."

"You mean it's bad to sleep with you?" Luffy gave Nami a horrified look. "Why? I didn't want you to be left out."

"Left out?" Usopp turned to ask Zoro behind him.

"He takes his naps with me during the day."

"Why?"

"Who knows," Zoro shrugged.

"Because I can't sleep by myself," Luffy said as he stretched to wake himself. "Trao says it's because I've been conditioned to sleep with someone since I was tiny and was never broken out of it." He then turned wide eyes to Nami. "Is it still bad to sleep with you?"

"No," Nami sighed then glared at Usopp, "you can sleep with me. I think it's adorable."

"Hey," Zoro's serious voice gained their attention, "I see a ship."

They all turned to look out to sea and saw a ship slowly coming towards them. The sun was now fully up, and they could see the pirate flag of the Black Cat Pirate crew.

"So how do you want to do this?" Luffy asked them.

"I'll just stay back here and take command," Usopp said proudly with his knees shaking.

"No, you're going to fight too," Luffy grinned with his arms crossed. He's determined to make Usopp understand how brave he can be.

"I don't care as long as I get to cut someone down," Zoro said indifferently.

"Same. I just want the treasures on their ship," Nami said.

"Okay. We'll all just fight. Usopp, you can stand behind and cover us with your slingshot. I'll help Nami with the treasures," Luffy grinned. "Defend this slope like your life depends on it, guys!"

"I'd rather go treasure hunting," Usopp mumbled, wanting to avoid fighting real-life pirates.

"You want to get through all that?" Luffy pointed.

At the sight of the horde of pirates jumping off the ship with their weapons drawn, Usopp squeaked, "Never mind. I'll leave that to you."

"Take those kids out and attack the village!" called out a man with a goatee when the pirates stopped in confusion at seeing the four teens. "We don't have time!"

"All right! Let's thin out this crowd first," Luffy said as he wound up his arm.

In just one attack, Luffy and Zoro were able to send them all flying back to the bottom of the slope.

"Eh?!" Luffy cried out in surprise. "They're so weak!"

"You guys are so strong!" Usopp yelled at them.

"You didn't kill them?" Luffy tilted his head in curiosity at Zoro when the pirates all got back up. He thought that was a normal thing in pirate fighting, especially with swords.

"I don't just kill everyone that comes after me. Besides, they're not worth my time," Zoro huffed before he narrowed his eyes at his captain. "Or are you saying I should kill them?"

"Nah, you do what you want."

"Good." Zoro may be a swordsman, but he's not as bloodthirsty as the rumors claimed him to be. He only kills the ones that deserve it. The others just needed to be scared enough to not want to bother him again.

"Ooo, what are they doing? Looks interesting," Luffy said as he watched the strange man with the goatee from yesterday swing a ring around.

"Look at my pendulum," the strange man said to his crew. "After I say 'One, Two, Jango,' you will become stronger, and your wounds will heal."

"Looks like he's hypnotizing them," Nami whispered. "Making them think they're stronger."

"Oh, no," Luffy hissed, pulling his hat down to cover his eyes as the man said "Jango."

There was a loud roar from the pirates, and Luffy lifted his hat out of his eyes to see one of weak crew member punch the side of a cliff with his bare hand, causing it to crumble easily. He could even feel each of the crew member's strength increased.

"It really worked!" Nami cried out in surprise.

"That was close, that was close," Luffy muttered to himself with his hand over his heart. "That would have been dangerous."

"He crushed the wall! How did they gain so much strength?" Nami said in surprise.

"This might be bad," Usopp trembled.

"What say you, Captain?" Zoro asked with a grin around the sword in his mouth.

"We take them out, of course," Luffy grinned. "I'll take Nami and thin out the crowd for you. Come on, Nami. Let's get your treasure."

"Right!" she said as she readied her staff. She may not be strong, but she's not going to let Luffy do all the work when he's helping her get the treasure.

Luffy made quick work of those that were in his way, punching his way through with Nami following closely behind. Once they reached the ship, Luffy grabbed a hold of Nami and jumped up. What greeted them on the deck was one skinny and one fat man who were startled awake. Not giving them time to fully wake, Luffy grabbed them both and tossed them over. "These are for you, Zoro!"

After some time wandering around the large ship, Luffy had to leave Nami on her own when he felt an angry presence outside. He cursed at himself for being too distracted at having fun treasure hunting that he didn't realize Kuro was coming. He reached the deck and looked over the rails in time to see and hear the butler ordering the Nyanban Brothers to finish the fight in five minutes.

Luffy thought the claws the butler was now supporting looked interesting. He's never seen a weapon like that before.

Zoro's all banged up with only one sword, but Luffy has faith that his swordsman can beat them up. Looking down to his left, Luffy wondered why two of Zoro's swords were laying there. "Hey, Zoro," he pointed to the swords with wide innocent eyes, "why did you leave your swords here?" Weren't swords a swordsman's pride or something like that?

"I didn't leave them there!" Zoro yelled at him as he defended himself with his single sword. "It got stolen!"

"Oh~ Okay. Here you go," the young captain jumped down to toss the swords back to its rightful owner. No wonder Zoro's all beaten up. He looked to the side to where Usopp was leaning against a tree, more beaten up than Zoro. "Good job, Usopp! You can take a break now."

Usopp gave a shaky thumbs-up before dropping his arms back down to the ground in relief.

The Nyaban Brothers attacked Zoro with renewed vigor, only to be cut down in one strike. With all three of his swords, it was much easier. Now that the obstacles were gone, Zoro turned to face Kuro, who merely looked uninterested.

"Four minutes," Kuro simply said.

Luffy and Zoro looked towards where they heard a cough. It was Buchi, the fat one. Luffy knew that Zoro had meant to kill both brothers, but this one was still alive because his fat saved him from being hit anywhere vital.

Buchi asked the goatee guy to hypnotize him. Once done, the large cat-man gave a loud roar before Jango gave an order. "Buchi, you take care of haramaki guy. I'll take care of the straw hat. We don't have time!"

Before any of them could start fighting, Kaya showed up to try and stop of the fighting, even saying that she'd be willing to give him all her inheritance if he'd stop attacking and leave. Merry, her other butler had explained everything to her after she found him bleeding in the house early in the morning.

Kuro didn't want that and went on to explain his reason for wanting to kill her.

Luffy was surprised when she pulled out a pistol to point at Kuro. There was no way she'd be able to pull the trigger though. That was okay because Usopp was there to distract the butler from attacking Kaya.

With the butler distracted with his attack to Usopp, Luffy stretched his arm back far behind him to make his punch reach all the way to the top of the slope where Kuro was. The punch knocked the man off his feet before he could touch Usopp.

It wasn't enough to keep him down, Luffy knew that, but it was good enough for now. Everyone was already surprised that he was able to knock down the butler, even Usopp was scared. If he'd actually killed the man, Luffy was afraid that Usopp would be too scared to join.

The three kids from yesterday showed up to attack the butler's face with a frying pan, a bat, and a shovel. Kaya yelled at them to stop. She had told them to not follow her when they found her on her way to the coast. Once they stopped their attack, the butler got up to look at Luffy, ignoring the kids.

"That was quite an odd attack you just used," Kuro said as he got up like he wasn't just attacked. "It seems you possess the power of the Devil's Fruit."

"That's right. I ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi. I'm a rubber man."

Kuro gave a smirk at that. "Jango, I will take care of this kid. You take care of Kaya. Make her write that will and kill her."

"Hold it," Zoro said, getting in Jango's way. "You're not getting past me."

That was when Buchi finally went to attack, distracting Zoro from stopping his captain.

"Usopp, leave this to us!" Luffy yelled. "Protect your friends!"

With Jango leisurely walking up the slope and past Zoro's fight, it gave Usopp time to grab Kaya to run, but his legs gave out. He fell face first. He was injured, tired, and terrified, but he tried his best to get himself back up. Kaya has to be safe! So, he ordered the children to take Kaya to the forest and protect her for him.

The enemy pirates started to laugh at how pathetic and weak Usopp was. They were saying there was no way for him to escape Jango. Luffy grabbed a chunk of the cliff and threw it at them. "If you dare to laugh at Usopp again, I'll kill you," he threatened them, letting out a bit of haki to let them know how angry he was.

That was all it took to give Usopp the courage to try to get up again, but his legs just wouldn't hold up. Jango passed him without a second look, going straight to the forest. Usopp hoped the kids and Kaya would be okay until he makes it. And he will make it. Luffy and Zoro hadn't laughed at him for being weak. They trusted him to protect his friends, his village, and his home.

He finally made it to his feet. He took a step and another, feeling more confident that he wouldn't fall again. The next thing he knew, Usopp had to start running when Buchi decided to stop him from going after the hypnotist. Zoro was able to stop the fat man, but the fear and adrenaline choose to kick in, and he fell again.

"Damn it," Usopp cried as he crawled his way up. "Even if I'm no match for him, I'll still protect them. I'll protect them!"

Buchi pushed Zoro off and into the cliff.

"I'm Captain of the Usopp Pirate Group! I'm a brave warrior of the sea! I won't let you hurt the villagers!" Usopp cried out in determination, more for motivating himself to keep going.

Zoro had enough and finally killed Buchi. "I'm taking Usopp and going after the hypnotist bastard. Do you have any problem with that?" Zoro said as he picked Usopp up from his pathetic crawl. He may be pathetic, but his resolve was admirable.

"Nope. Go!" Luffy gave him the okay. He gave another punch towards Kuro, that didn't hit but gave Zoro enough time to run past the butler. "Huh? He disappeared." Luffy said in confusion when Kuro wasn't where he thought the butler would be. Feeling the presence behind him, he ducked in time to avoid being beheaded.

"Tell me," Kuro said as he righted his glasses with the palm of his hand, "what reason would a stranger have for saving this village?"

"I have a friend in this village that I don't want to see dead," Luffy grinned.

"What a simple reason," Kuro scoffed. "Are you okay with that? It'll be your reason for dying."

"That's okay," Luffy said as he readied his fist. "I'm not going to die anyway." He cracked his knuckles with a grin, ready to have some fun, while waiting for Zoro and Usopp to come back.

Kuro merely huffed before doing some fancy footwork, then disappeared in a cloud of dust. This time Luffy was ready and followed the ex-captain's presence. Luffy easily dodged the few attacks that came his way.

"You're a bad pirate," Luffy stated when Kuro took a break. "Real pirates don't just throw away their crew."

"What would you know about pirates?" the butler sneered. "You're just a kid playing pirate. What would you know of my hardship?! Those you call my crew are the reason for all my hardship. Useless!" He then went on a rant about his past and how he tricked the marines and the world into believing he's dead.

"You don't know what a real pirate is," Luffy grinned after Kuro finished his rant.

"If you want to know about real pirates that much, then I'll show you that terror," Kuro scoffed before sneering. "The terror of a pirate who's been face to face with death many times!"

Luffy could feel the anger grow from his opponent as the man swayed back and forth, then he was completely out of sight. Luffy followed his presence to find the man far behind him and closer to the ship and the rest of his crew. The boy was angry when he realized Kuro was attacking his own men and grew furious when he realized Nami was watching from the top of the ship.

Nami would be in trouble if Kuro found her on his ship! Luffy was the only one there who could see Kuro, who was going too fast for anyone to avoid being cut. He had to stop him before Nami got hurt.

Using Gear Second, Luffy disappeared to follow and gave one punch to the butler's face and yelled, "What do you take your crew for?!" He huffed as he continued to punch the ex-captain as onlookers gawked at the unconscious Kuro on the ground. "What kind of captain hurts their own crew?! You're the captain! You're supposed to protect them!"

In the short time she'd been with him, Nami had never seen, or ever believed, the happy-go-lucky Luffy would ever get that mad. She was scared. She was scared at how easily Luffy lost it. She was scared at how angry Luffy was. She was scared by how much she cared for the little boy she barely knew. She was scared she was getting attached. She was scared, but she had to do something to stop him.

Jumping off the ship, leaving the bag of treasure behind, she landed just behind Luffy and ran towards him and did the only thing she could think of. "Luffy!" she cried out as she hugged him as hard as she could from behind. "Luffy, stop! It's over, so stop!"

She felt the boy still in her arms. "Nami?" She nodded as she sniffled. "I – I'm sorry," Luffy mumbled as he looked down at his bloodied hands and Kuro.

Nami gave a chuckle as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "Why are you sorry? You defeated the stupid butler, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but…" He couldn't take his eyes off the mess he made of Kuro's face.

"Come here," she turned him around to hug him, so he wouldn't be able to see the beaten man.

"Say," she said quietly, "what were you mad about?"

Luffy gave a light sniffle against her chest. "He's wrong. That's not what a crew is. A crew isn't there to live and die on a captain's word. And then, I saw you there and thought he was going to hurt you, so I beat him up, and I couldn't stop because I didn't want him to hurt you, and I scared you. Am I a bad person?" He mumbled as he tried not to cry, afraid that she'd leave him.

"Oh, Luffy. You're not a bad person. You did great. I'm safe, and you saved Usopp's village. I'm not scared anymore. See?" She gave him a smile that she made sure he saw. He gave her a smile when she ruffled his hair. "There. All better?"

"Yeah," he nodded.

"Good. Let's get you cleaned up." Nami gave him a hand to help him up and lead him to the ocean to wash off the blood.

Of course, she couldn't forget the treasure that she left. "You!" she pointed to one of the still conscious Black Cat Pirates, "Go get my treasure up there for me and no funny business. Or else!" Fear of her letting her boy-captain loose had the man rushing to do her bidding. "The rest of you!" she said to the others, "get everyone else on that ship and off this island!"

Luffy laughed at how fast the pirates climbed up the ship and sailed away. "Nami is scarier than them."

"Well, of course. We had to get rid of them somehow. By the way, should we go after Usopp and them?" Nami asked as she looked towards the forest in worry.

"Nah. Usopp is braver than he thinks, and Zoro is with him. Zoro is strong." Luffy's confident smile calmed her.

-*/-*/-*/-*/-*/

Omake

Usopp gapped at the scene before him. Luffy, naked, being yelled at Nami for running out of the bathroom without his clothes and catching colds. He then thought back to all the weird happenings since the start of his pirating career and joining Luffy's crew.

1\. They wouldn't let him be the captain. That just isn't fair. He'd be a great captain. He isn't called the Great Captain Usopp for nothing! But it's ok. He'll just grace them with his awesome presence.

2\. Luffy running around Going Merry, the ship which was gifted to them by Kaya and designed by Merry. The weird part of that was when Luffy told the sheep figurehead, "Don't worry. I'll get you talking to me in no time." Right. As if the ship would ever talk.

3\. Nami taking control of the ship. Wasn't the captain's job to tell everyone what to do? Wasn't she just the navigator? Why the hell is Luffy taking orders from her? And Zoro's going along with it?!

4\. Luffy asking everyone to take a bath with him, even Nami. Of course, Nami said no because she's a girl. Usopp had already bathed the night before. Zoro insisted he's clean enough.

5\. Luffy in the bath was just plain weird. They all heard the giggling, then the splashing, then the yelling. Zoro had to go in to take care of whatever was going on in there.

6\. And last, but not least (and Usopp's sure this isn't going to be the last of the weirdness), Luffy running out of the bath with nothing but his straw hat.

That concluded Usopp's review of the weirdness of his pirating career. Oh, and let's not forget Zoro standing next to him with his hand covering his face in only his pants. Looks like Zoro ended up having to take a bath after all.

"So what was all the yelling about?" Usopp decided to ask.

"He wanted to soak in the tub," Zoro deadpanned in his hand, not wanting to see the nightmare that came from his not being able to clothe his captain.

"…" Usopp didn't see what was wrong with that. It's normal to soak in the tub after washing. "Ok, and?"

"Luffy's a Devil Fruit user. He can't swim and therefore, can't sit in the tub without drowning," the swordsman growled. "Goddammit! Why couldn't he just wash and get out?"

There was a pause before Usopp decided to brave it and ask, "Why's he naked?"

"I DON'T KNOW! He just grabbed his hat and ran out!" Here is where Nami, Luffy, and Usopp stared at Zoro's outburst. "Oh, wait," Zoro said right after and pulled out a damp paper from his pocket to read. "Ok. I should have known this wasn't a joke," he sighed and shoved the paper to Usopp.

Usopp read the paper and looked at Zoro as if the swordsman lost his mind. "You're joking, right?"

"No. Look at number three and six."

"Let me see," Nami said as she took the paper from Usopp, after successfully dressing Luffy. "The third one says, 'Make sure he has clothes on before he leaves the bath. If I ever hear that he made it out in public without clothes, I'll have your organs in my hands and make you watch as I pulverize them.' How morbid. Number six … 'Be sure to only feed him non-greasy foods, or lots and lots of salad if that isn't possible.'"

Nami glared at Zoro after reading that. "Why didn't you say something earlier? We could have avoided the whole puking thing if we knew about this!"

"Because I thought this paper was a joke!" Zoro defended himself. "Or are you telling me that pirate captains usually come with instruction manuals? Because I've never been a pirate before nor have I ever had a captain. This paper just magically appeared in my pocket the day I joined Luffy, so I thought it was just a prank!"

"My brothers like to play pranks on people," Luffy joined in. He had to stretch his neck to read the paper over Nami's shoulder. "This note is from my family. My brothers probably snuck it on you."

"There. See?"

"So this is the haki thing you were talking about?" Usopp asked, pointing to the line that says 'Don't worry about him getting lost. He knows how to find you,' wanting to break the tension that was building. All the while, he silently hoped he wouldn't have to watch his insides get pulverized.

* * *

 **A/N:** I'm so sorry for taking so long on this. I've been so busy with this and that, and then this and that happened. Anyway, I've been on a hectic schedule. Not to mention this chapter is boring, and it was so painful to read it again and again. So I kept putting it off. T_T No. I am not happy with this chapter, but I'm done with it. I'm hoping the next chapter won't take as long and wouldn't be as boring...


	6. Chapter 6

Beta by **Navigator101**.

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

"What are you guys doing?" Zoro asked after being woken up by a loud boom.

"Testing the cannon I found," Luffy smiled at him, turning his back on Usopp, who was trying his turn on the cannon. "It works great!" He turned back around when Usopp cheered after firing a round.

"And that is how it's done!" Usopp said, proudly pointing at his handy work.

"You weren't supposed to fire at the rocks!" Luffy yelled with wide eyes.

"So, you're saying that you missed the rocks on purpose and were actually aiming at nothing?" Usopp teased. "Don't lie just because you're jealous of my perfect aim. I am, after all, the Great -" He proceeded to put his thumb to his chest proudly before being interrupted by Luffy.

"There's people there," the child-sized captain simply said.

"Wait. What?!" Usopp cried out in surprise then looked horrified as Luffy ran off shouting for Nami to steer them to the rocks because Usopp may have killed someone.

Zoro placed a comforting hand on Usopp's shoulder as the long-nosed crew member turned to look at him with wide eyes. "I killed someone," he said, on the verge of tears.

"You're a pirate now. Man up. It's bound to happen," Zoro said as he looked towards Luffy, who was gesturing wildly at Nami, giving Usopp some privacy if he chose to cry. The swordsman knew how hard it was to take in first kills, especially when it wasn't meant to happen. Then he remembered how he got himself over it. "Let's go to the kitchen and get some tea," though he had liquor instead of tea back then.

The swordsman was in the middle of trying to figure out how to make tea when they heard a commotion on the deck and Nami's scream. They both ran out the door to see what was going on right when Luffy threw the attacker into the wall.

"Jonny?" Zoro asked once he recognized the face of their attacker. "What happened? Where's Yosaku?"

"Zoro-aniki? Yosaku is…" Jonny couldn't finish his sentence as he started crying into his arm but was able to point off to the side of the ship with his other hand.

Zoro and Luffy went over to look and saw a small rowboat with another man lying in it, looking worse for wear. They both brought him up onto the deck as Usopp came down the stairs to help, leaving Nami to steer the ship.

"What happened?" Zoro asked Jonny again, once they were able to bring Yosaku up.

"Three days ago he was still healthy, but then he passed out, and I don't know why," Jonny sniffed. "His teeth started coming out, and his old wounds started bleeding. I didn't know what to do. We took a rest at that rock, and then this ship shot its cannon at us."

"I'm sorry!" Usopp prostate in front of the both of them. "I didn't know anyone was on there! I didn't mean to kill anyone, I swear!"

"It's ok," Jonny sniffed, getting his emotion back under control. "Will he survive, Aniki?" He asked the only person he knew, in hope that there was some way to save his partner.

"You guys are stupid!" Nami said as she stormed down the stairs after hearing everything.

"What did you say?" Zoro growled. "You think that my friend's death is stupid?"

Nami heaved a sigh before ordering Luffy and Usopp to get some lemons from the kitchen. "He has scurvy," she explained when the two came back with as many lemons as they could carry. "If it's not too late, he'll be better in two or three days."

"Is that true, Aneki?" Jonny asked in excitement.

"Don't call me that. In the past, anyone who got scurvy would die. However, the cause of scurvy is the lack of vitamin C, and in those days, ships didn't store any kind of fruits or vegetables on board," she explained.

"You're like a miracle doctor!" Luffy shouted, happy to have someone who could help take care of them.

"I'm not a doctor!" she quickly corrected him. "If you want to become a pirate, you should know simple things like this!"

"I never knew that we could easily get sick like that," Zoro said after putting Yosaku to bed with Jonny watching him.

"Let this be a good lesson. We need a good chef and doctor if you want to continue on," Nami said.

"So we need a good cook," Luffy said with his hand to his chin in thought, thinking it may be hard to find someone as good as Thatch. They do need one though to keep everyone else on the ship alive. He then shrugged it off. He could always call Thatch to teach his new cook how to cook good food.

"Aniki," Jonny said, coming out of the cabins, "if you're looking for a chef, I would like to recommend one place, but I'm not sure that one will join you. It shouldn't take us long from here, but you have to be careful because it's close to the Grand Line. It's a restaurant ship, in other words, a sea restaurant called Baratie."

"Nami! Take us to Barry Tea!" Luffy cheered.

"Baratie, Luffy," Nami corrected before doing as instructed after getting directions from Jonny.

"Aniki," Jonny came back to sit down with Zoro, "what are you doing on a pirate ship?"

"It's a long story, but it was my choice," Zoro said, letting the man know what he wasn't there against his will.

"And," Jonny lowered his voice with a hand cupping his mouth, "who's the captain? The only one wearing anything remotely resembling that straw hat," he pointed to the jolly roger on the sail, "is the kid. Who lets a kid on a pirate ship anyway?"

"The _kid_ is my captain," Zoro smiled knowingly.

"THAT LITTLE GIRL IS THE CAPTAIN OF A PIRATE SHIP!"

"I'M NOT A GIRL!" Luffy yelled out before barreling towards them to grab onto Jonny's coat violently, causing some papers to come out of it.

Jonny looked down at the so-called-captain, and all he could see was a little girl that barely came up to his shoulders in a cute little sundress. The flowers in the straw hat didn't help the image either.

"Okay, young lady," Jonny corrected himself.

"I'm a man!"

"M-m-man?" Jonny stuttered in surprise.

"Luffy is a bona fide 15-year-old male," Zoro grinned. "I'd be careful if I were you. He's a pirate captain and did beat your ass earlier."

Jonny gulped at the reminder.

"What's this?" Nami joined them to see what the commotion was. She bent down to pick up some of the papers that came out of Jonny's coat. She froze as she picked one up and stared at it.

"What's wrong, Nami?" Luffy asked, looking over her shoulder, feeling her fear.

"Those are wanted posters," Jonny went on to explain his profession as a bounty hunter as if she didn't know what they did.

"Hey," Luffy interrupted him, "do you know where this guy is?" He pointed to the wanted poster in Nami's hands.

"That's Arlong, a fishman," Jonny said with a grim face. "You don't want to mess with him. Fishmen are notorious for being far stronger than any human beings. They're very rare in East Blue, so it's no wonder you're interested in him."

"You didn't answer my question," Luffy huffed.

"And I'm telling you that you don't want to mess with this guy if you want to live," Jonny said.

"Nami doesn't like him," Luffy said as if that would make a difference.

"Luffy," Nami said quietly, surprised that he caught on.

He ignored her and continued on, staring Jonny down. "And I forgot that I had to run an errand for Jinbe."

"Jinbe? Jinbe, as in the Shichibukai?" Jonny asked in shock.

Luffy nodded.

"You know a Shichibukai?" Another nod. "How?"

"I just do. Now, will you tell me where I can find him? I need to beat his ass for scaring Nami and run my errand," Luffy crossed his arms in annoyance.

"Luffy, you don't need to," Nami said, wanting to spare the captain from being killed by Arlong.

"No. I need to. Jinbe wouldn't be happy if I told him I didn't run a simple errand for him. Besides, I get the feeling that if I don't beat him up for scaring you, you'd leave," Luffy pouted and hugged her tightly. "I don't want you to leave. I need you here with us. You're the only navigator I want. Please don't leave."

Nami stared at him, wondering how he knew what she was thinking. The longer she looked at him, the more her resolve left her. "He's strong," she argued weakly. "He'd kill you all."

"He won't kill us. I promise. I'm strong, stronger than he is," Luffy said confidently.

"How would you know he's strong enough to kill us?" Zoro asked defensively. "What makes you think we can't beat him up?"

She looked up at the swordsman, looking defeated by Luffy's pout.

"Come on, Nami," Luffy whined. "Jinbe sent me. Armong won't kill me."

"Isn't Jinbe a fishman too? How can you trust him?" Jonny asked skeptically. "He could be sending you to your death."

"Jinbe is a friend!" Luffy glared, defending his friend. "Jinbe is a good person. He sent me because he knows I can take care of Armong."

"It's Arlong," Nami sighed, feeling that she's lost the battle. "I know because," she lifted the sleeve on her right arm to show the tattoo of Arlong's Pirate crew, "I'm part of their crew."

Luffy slowly let go of Nami and sat her down next to him. "Jinbe told me to go check up on Armong and said to beat him up if he's treating people bad. You don't like him. Is he treating you bad?"

She gave a choked laugh. "Bad? Bad doesn't even cover it. He took over our island ten years ago. He killed my mother figure and forced me to join his crew after he found out about my talent for drawing maps. The only way to free my village is to pay him 100 million beli."

"So that's why you're so obsessed with money," Usopp said, nodding as if he knew.

"You're supposed to be manning the helm," Nami deadpanned at him, wiping the tears from her face.

"No need. We're almost there," Usopp pointed ahead of them where the fish-shaped ship with a large sign reading "Baratie" was.

"IT'S A FISH!" Luffy cheered excitedly. He jumped up and was ready to rocket himself over but changed his mind. He made a quick about-turn and sat back down next to Nami.

"What was that about?" Usopp asked. He was sure Luffy would have sent himself flying over to the giant fish.

"What was what?" "Luffy tilted his head in confusion.

"You know…," Usopp made a hand motion that made no sense to anyone until he gave up. "Why didn't you do what you were about to do?"

"Oh," Luffy gave a smile and gave Nami a hug, "I'm staying with Nami, so she won't be lonely."

"That's sweet of you, Luffy, but I'm not lonely," Nami looked at him in confusion.

"I think what he means is, 'You're not alone,'" Zoro said as he got up from his seat to get ready to anchor the ship, but not before laying a quick reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"That's right, Nami, have I ever told you of the time when I defeated 100 fishmen? I was only …"

"What a great crew," Jonny sniffled as he wiped a tear from his face.

-*/

Zeff, the owner and head chef of Baratie, eyed the four young customers that had just entered and taken a seat at an empty table. He eyed the ship and its jolly roger then looked down from his perch on the upper level of the restaurant through their many windows. They looked harmless enough that he went back to watching over the rest of the patrons.

The head chef turned his eyes back to the pirates as they were getting rowdy and were gathering the attention of the more well-mannered customers. He saw Patty, one of his overly muscular cooks, at their table, probably getting their drink orders. Zeff knew he had to go check up on that table before someone, most likely Patty, started an unnecessary fight.

"Do you have yummy salads?" _A young voice. Probably the girl that came in with them._

"Of course, we have salads. This is a restaurant. What kind of salad would you like, you damn octopus?" _That's Patty's voice. He's probably smiling like always and unknowingly insulting them as usual._

"What did you call our captain?" _Male. Aggressive. Probably the green-haired guy with all those swords._

"Zoro, I don't care what he calls me. I just want food."

"You may not care, but I do. You are a captain and should demand respect, Luffy." _Luffy_. At that name, he turned to drag a blond teenager by the back of his collar with him.

"Hey, you shitty geezer, what the hell do you think you're doing?" the blond struggled to free himself.

"I have a table for you. It's not like you were doing your job anyway. You were just hitting on another lady again," Zeff grumbled. "Patty!"

"Yes, Owner," Patty stopped his arguing to greet his boss.

"Sanji's taking over this table. You take over the rest of his."

"But Owner, that's the whole restaurant!" Patty complained. "Besides, they only ordered water to drink. They probably don't even have money to pay for the food."

"I don't care."

With that, Patty mumbled and sulked his way to the kitchen.

Zeff then turned to address the table, where Sanji was now wooing the orange-haired girl and looked at the youngest. "You're Luffy?"

The change in demeanor was immediate, from tired and hungry to defensive glare at Zeff, causing Zoro to ready his swords. "Lucy," was the curt answer he received. He's a Whitebeard. One could never be too careful. Not that he really cares. He just wanted to eat in peace without having to fight for it.

The head chef smirked, knowing he was right. "Lucy, Luffy, same thing." He then pulled out a picture from his jacket to show the young captain. "You know these kids?" It was a picture he'd taken during the one year he spent in Grand Line, a year before he picked up his own Little Eggplant.

Luffy slowly reached out to pull the picture to himself to get a better look. It was an old black and white picture with three young children. They were wearing large shirts to cover themselves. He couldn't tell if they were wearing pants or not as the shirts they were wearing were too big to tell. The youngest of the three was clutching the shirts of the older children on either side of him with his bony fingers, the only things that weren't covered in bandages.

He knew the children alright, but where did this old guy get this picture from? This was a picture of him and his brothers back when they were first picked up by Pops before they had a home. This wasn't a picture he wanted to see. Ace and Sabo weren't happy. They were scared. They weren't looking at the camera, but their faces said it all.

Instead of answering, he tore the picture into pieces and glared suspiciously at Zeff. Luffy wasn't sure if he should be worried or not. The Pink Bastard had been taken care of, and this man didn't seem dangerous.

Rather than getting angry, Zeff laughed and pulled Sanji away from Nami. "You finally get your wish, Little Eggplant. You can finally cook for one of those brats from that picture you were interested in."

"Huh? Where?" Sanji looked around the table but didn't see anyone who resembled any of the kids in the picture he had found on accident years ago.

"The one covered in bandages is this one," Zeff pointed at Luffy.

Sanji's eyes brightened, and he made his way over to hold one of Luffy's hand in his. "Ah, the tragedy. Don't you worry, young lady, I will personally make sure that you don't leave this place hungry." He placed a kiss on the hand before leaving.

"But we didn't place our orders yet," Usopp said as Sanji left.

"Don't worry. Sanji is the sous chef here. He knows what he's doing," Zeff assured him.

"But Luffy…" Naimi said looking towards Luffy, who was still eyeing Zeff warily.

"I take it you don't remember me. Of course, not. You were still too young. That was the last picture I took before I quit being a pirate. It has been Sanji's dream to feed you three if he ever had the chance. He doesn't like seeing anyone go hungry, especially children."

"So you're family? Friend?" Luffy let go of the glare to look at the older man with curiosity.

"No, more like acquaintances. I wasn't close enough to your old man to be either, but we got along just fine. I've only met him once. He calls from time to time to give me updates on you three," Zeff laughed. He had been worried about those children enough that Whitebeard called to update him. The head chef was pleasantly surprised to hear that the Emperor had decided to keep them. "Now, then, what are you doing here so far from home?"

"Looking for a cook," Luffy said as he bounced excitedly in his seat.

"I take it, then, that you've left to be on your own? I'm actually surprised that they let you go," Zeff said after Luffy nodded. "The last I heard, Edward was saying his children wouldn't let you out of their sight in fear of another disappearing act."

Luffy gave a frown at that. "That was no fun. We always had a babysitter. I'm not a baby, and they're not even sitting. It'd be more fun if they were sitting. They can't follow me that way. Then I left."

"Wait. Let me get this straight. You left home because you were tired of being babied?" Usopp asked in disbelief.

"No. I left because it was time."

"I don't get it," Usopp said as he gave some serious thoughts about what Luffy said.

"Give it up," Zoro said as he stretched and yawned. "There's nothing to understand, other than Luffy is here now, and we chose to follow him."

"You didn't just up and leave them, did you?" Zeff asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course not. Do you know how hard it is to get rid of Ace _and_ Sabo? Grandpops had to make them promise to go home after I got my first crew member," Luffy scowled. "Pops even had to threaten them with a year's worth of chore duty."

"In that case, I'll leave you kids in peace and go finish up some work," Zeff said as he left the table just as Sanji arrived.

He placed Zoro and Usopp's plate down in front of them as he went by without acknowledging them. "For you, my dear," Sanji said as he gently set a seafood pasta down in front of Luffy before turning to give the other plate to Nami with hearts in his eyes, "and for the beautiful Miss Nami-san. Bon appetit."

Noticing Nami was not paying attention to him or the food, Sanji turned his gaze to follow hers. As he did so, he noticed the other two guys' gaze were in the same direction as Nami's. His eyes finally landed on Luffy, who was poking her dish suspiciously, rather than enjoying the meal he made especially for her.

"It's not poisoned you know," Sanji said perplexed to the table as a whole, seeing as it was not just Luffy expecting the food to kill her.

"I wonder if poison would make it easier to eat," Luffy mumbled but was heard clearly. No one had time to comment because Zoro, Usopp, and Nami held their breath as Luffy finally took a bite.

"How is it?" Usopp asked.

There was a pause as Luffy finished chewing and swallowed before his face lit up. "It's so good!"

"Of course, it's good," Sanji scoffed.

"Seconds!" Luffy said as he shoved an empty plate in front of the bewildered cook.

He even needed a moment to look at everyone else's surprised face and their full plate that he didn't just imagine it. The kid finished the plate before any of his companions has even taken a bite.

"Uh…okay," Sanji said as he took the plate and walked away to make more food.

"How's your stomach?" Nami asked worriedly once the silence was broken and the three of them started on their own meals. "Are you sure you should be eating more? Oh, wow! This is delicious."

Luffy placed a hand on his stomach as he thought about and nodded happily. "Yup. I'm still hungry and my tummy feels good."

Sanji came out with a few large servings and placed them in the middle of the table for them to share. He figured if the young captain was this hungry, the rest of the crew must be as equally hungry. Being the person that he is, Sanji would never let anyone leave hungry, especially the beautiful Nami.

He was right that the two males at the table had second servings, even Nami had a few extra little bites, but what he wasn't expecting was for Luffy to finish what was left _and_ ask for more. Sanji ended up going back to the kitchen two more times to bring back large portioned plates before Luffy was satisfied. He's pretty sure Luffy ate enough to feed at least ten grown men.

"Luffy," Usopp started hesitantly as he looked towards the stack of plates to the side of their table, "when was the last time you ate until you were full?"

"Hmm, Shells Town," Luffy answered after thinking about it.

"That was two weeks ago!" Zoro said in surprise.

"Why didn't you just eat until you were full?!" Nami nearly yelled in her worry. "Is it because of what happened in Syrup?"

"I wasn't full, but I wasn't starving either," Luffy tilted his head, confused as to what was wrong. "If I ate as much as I wanted, there wouldn't be enough food for you guys. Thatch told me to always make sure there was enough food for everyone."

"Couldn't you have just restocked enough food?" Sanji asked as he cleared the table.

"Nope. We didn't have a cook, so I didn't know how much food to buy," Luffy grinned as he grabbed Sanji by the arm. "Now, we have a cook."

"I'm honored that a cute captain would want me as a cook, but I'm afraid that I will have to refuse as I have personal reasons for staying here… huh?" Sanji trailed off as he noticed the three at the table giving him looks of pity.

He was about to ask them why they were looking at him like that when Luffy turned his head to look out the windows and narrowed his eyes.

"What's wrong, Luffy?" Zoro asked as he was the first to notice his captain's change in demeanor.

"Someone strong is coming," was all that was said when one of the customers who was looking out the window shout out in alarm causing all the other customers to look out also.

"An hourglass on each side of the skull…that flag is…that flag is… There's no mistaking it. It belongs to the ruler of East Blue, DON KREIG!" someone said, causing a frenzy of customers running out of the floating restaurant.

"Don Kreig?!" Patty shouted in a panic. "This is the Don of a pirate fleet with a 5,000 pirate force we're talking about! Why would he come back to take revenge for just one of his subordinate?!"

"There's no mistake. He's really here!" A different cook yelled at Patty. "That's what you get for kicking out one of his men!"

Just as the restaurant cleared of all the customers, the door opened to reveal man holding up a larger man.

"Sorry, can I have some water and food?" the large man said weakly. "Please, give me some water and food."

All the cooks were surprised at how weak Don Kreig looked when he fell to the ground in hunger.

"He doesn't look all that strong to me," Zoro scoffed.

"No. Not him," Luffy answered distractedly. He continued to look out the window, ignoring everything that was going on in the restaurant as Sanji left to make something for the starving pirate to eat.

His attention was brought back to the happenings when Sanji returned with food and a drink. Some of the cooks yelled at Sanji to take the food away, warning him of the kind of person Don Kreig was.

Sanji didn't have time to argue back as Don Kreig finished his meal and attacked Sanji, throwing him into the pillar of the restaurant.

"We need to get out of here!" Usopp whispered from under the table, where he was shaking in fear with Nami.

"We're not leaving without our cook," Luffy said stubbornly as Don Kreig stated he wanted the ship and demanded enough food to feed a hundred people.

The young captain smiled to himself when Sanji said he was going to cook for them after being beaten up by Don Kreig. He even stood up to his fellow cooks when they tried to stop him.

"If you want to stop me, go ahead. I know. He's an incurable villain. I know that much. But that doesn't matter to me. What happens after we feed them, it's too much of a bother to think about. I'm a cook. No more. No less. If there's someone who's hungry, I'll feed them. That's all there is to it. Isn't that what being a cook means?" Sanji said to the cooks surrounding him.

Luffy definitely wanted this cook.

Zeff came back out with a large bag of food to hand over to the pirate captain before Sanji made it to the kitchen.

"Owner Zeff!" The cooks exclaimed.

"Zeff you say?" Don Kreig said in surprise. "You must be Red Foot Zeff. An incomparable pirate who was a cook and yet also a captain. You're the man who once entered Grand Line and came back in one piece. You should have a logbook with the full year of your journey written in it. Give it to me!"

"My logbook, huh? Indeed, I have it with me, but I can't give it to you. The logbook is the pride of all the crewmen that I traveled with. It's too important to give it to you."

"Then I'll just have to take it. It's true that I fell from Grand Line. Even if that's the case, I'm still Don Krieg, the strongest man. The only thing was that I lacked information. I'll take your logbook, and I'll form a large pirate fleet again and seize One Piece. And I'll stand on top in this Great Pirate Era!" The man laughed.

Luffy finally got up from his seat and angrily walked up to Don Krieg. "Hold on one minute. The Pirate King is going to be me!" he declared.

"Back off, kid," Patty yelled. "That's not someone you can take on!"

"This is something I can't back off on," Luffy smiled confidently.

"Did you say something, brat? I can let it pass," Don said dismissively.

"You don't have to. I just stated a fact."

"This isn't a game," the larger captain looked at the smaller captain, confused as to why there was someone as young as this one still in the restaurant when all of the other guests had already left.

"Of course not. I'll be the one to conquer Grand Line," Luffy said confidently.

Don merely scoffed and left with the large sack of food to feed his crew.

After the pirate left, Luffy went up to the head chef. "I want Sanji. If I get rid of that guy for you, can I have Sanji?"

"You want my sou chef?" Zeff looked down at Luffy.

"Sanji's a shoe chef? What's that?" Luffy tilted his head in confusion.

Zeff sighed at the simple mind. "It means he's my second in command."

"Oh, ok. I'm taking Sanji," Luffy said.

"Sure. You can have him," the head chef grinned.

"Hey," Sanji said as he came up behind them. "Don't I have a say in this?"

"Nope," Luffy said as he made his way out the door of the restaurant to wait for the pirates to finish eating.

"You're not going to get them before they finish?" Zoro joined him in leaning against the wall.

"Sanji won't be happy if I did," Luffy said, half listening in to what the chefs were arguing about inside the restaurant behind him.

"Have you ever felt what it's like to be on the brink of starvation?! Losing food and water in this grand ocean, do you know how scary it is?! Do you know how hard it is?!" Zeff lectured.

"What do you mean, Owner?"

"The difference between Sanji and you all is whether you know it or not."

Zoro looked to the side to see Luffy holding his stomach, lost in thought. The swordsman turned his head to look at the sky, having a slight idea of what Luffy might have gone through. "If we have a cook, we wouldn't have to worry about going hungry, right, Luffy?"

"Huh?" Luffy looked up to Zoro.

"You really want that cook, right? So we'll have to make sure to get rid of that bunch," Zoro grinned at his captain.

"Right," Luffy smiled back.

"This is our restaurant! We'll fight and protect this place," the cooks came out to join them.

"Hey, Luffy," Usopp stuck his head out of the doorway, "you said someone strong is coming, and it wasn't Don Krieg. Who is it? Should we be worried?"

"Is that true?" Zeff asked.

"Yeah. If we don't bother him, he won't bother us," Luffy said.

"Are-are you sure?" Usopp whispered in fear. "Who is it?"

"The one who did that," Luffy pointed at the large ship of the Krieg Pirates that was split nearly in half. "And he's coming to finish his work."

Just as he said that a huge shock wave sliced the ship cleanly into two slices.

"Hawk-Eye Mihawk." Luffy introduced.

"Hawk-Eye?!" Zoro said, suddenly standing straight up, looking towards the lone small ship sailing their way.

"You know him, Zoro?" Luffy asked.

"Yeah, he's the man I'm looking for. He's the reason I set out to sea," Zoro said with a gleam in his eyes. "I'm going to fight him, and there's nothing you can do to stop me, Luffy. Don't forget our promise." With that, he jumped off the restaurant to land in front of Mihawk.

Luffy locked eyes with Mihawk, glaring in a way to tell the man to not hurt his swordsman. Not like Mihawk would listen anyway. "Usopp, Nami, go protect Merry with Jonny and Yosaku. That's the safest place to be."

"How is that safe?!" Nami screeched. "That guy could clearly slice a ship five times the size of ours! How can we protect the ship against that?!"

'"Mihawk won't touch Merry. I meant protect her from the pirates. Don't let them take our home," Luffy didn't take his eyes off Zoro and Mihawk as he told them what to do.

Nami and Usopp went to do as they were told as everyone else stopped what they were doing to watch the battle between the World's Strongest Swordsman and the Pirate Hunter Zoro.

Luffy could tell Zoro was angry that Mihawk was using a tiny sword to fight him, rather than Yoru, the large black blade on his back. It was a one-sided battle, just as Luffy had feared. It was too early for Zoro to fight someone from the New World. It took everything Luffy had to not jump in when Mihawk finally stabbed Zoro's chest, but he had promised Zoro that he wouldn't interfere with his dream.

When Yoru was finally drawn and two of Zoro's sword were broken, Luffy could only hope Mihawk wouldn't actually kill his swordsman. He was proven wrong when the older swordsman sliced Zoro's chest without hesitation.

"Zoro!" Luffy cried out before stretching his arms and bringing him towards Mihawk in anger.

"Damn you! Why?! How could you?!" The young captain pulled out his dagger from under his dress to point at the man.

"Are you the young swordsman's captain? I'm impressed that you actually watched it to the end," Mihawk calmly stated to an angry, crying Luffy. "Don't worry. I didn't kill him." Not that Mihawk wouldn't like to fight someone as strong as Luffy but being at the end of a whole fleet of angry pirates wasn't something he wanted to face. His experience against Luffy's crazy ability _would_ make for an interesting fight.

"Huh?" Luffy wiped the tears from his face.

"If you'd calm down, you'd know," Mihawk said as he looked to where Jonny and Yosaku fished Zoro out from the sea, taking him to Nami and Usopp for first aid.

"Zoro!"

"It's still too early for you to die," Mihawk said loud enough for everyone there to hear and hopefully pass on his message. "My name is Dracule Mihawk. Learn about yourself. Learn about the world. And become strong! No matter how many years it takes, I will hold this seat of the strongest and wait for you. Try to surpass me, Roronoa Zoro!"

"Dracule Mihawk?" Luffy said the name slowly, putting his dagger away. "I thought your name was Hawk-Eye Mihawk."

"Anikii!" Jonny and Yosaku cried out when Zoro raised his sword.

"Luffy, can you hear me?" It was weak, but Luffy heard him.

"Yeah!" he answered happily.

"Did I worry you? You need no less than the world's greatest swordsman, right? I will…I will never be defeated ever again! Until the day I defeat him and become a master swordsman, I'll never be defeated. Got any problem with that…Pirate King!"

"None!" Luffy laughed, happy to know his friend will be ok.

"Looks like you got yourself a good crew," Mihawk said as took out a package to hand to Luffy.

"Red-hair asked me to deliver this to you," was all he said before walking away.

"Hey, Hawk-Eye," Don Krieg stopped him before he could get on his tiny boat. "Did you come to take my life, the life of East Blue's ruler, Don Krieg?" Krieg taunted.

"No. You were just something to pass the time, but I've had enough fun. So I'm going home to take a nap."

"What's this?" Luffy said as he opened the package to find a stuffed Sea King, uninterested in what was happening before him.

"You may have had enough, but I'm tired of getting beaten. So die before leaving!" Krieg declared, opening fire from his many mini cannon and pistols hidden in his armor.

"Seems some people never learn," Mihawk said to himself as he made a seawall with one swing of Yoru and disappeared.

"My sea king…" Luffy looked at his soaked toy. "My sea king…You got my sea king all wet!" He glared at Krieg.

"Luffy!" Nami shouted at him. "Don't fight with that thing! Toss it over here!"

He looked up to see that he didn't raise a fist to fight but had held his toy up in the air to fight with instead. He laughed as he stretched his arm to give the plush to Nami, grateful that she stopped him from ruining his gift further.

"And don't forget the treasure. I want everything they have!" The reality was, Nami didn't want any disadvantage in the fight. It's already bad enough that Luffy's fighting East Blue's strongest pirate. Though, she doubts anyone is stronger than Arlong. There was something about Luffy that made her believe her captain would be able to save her and her village.

"Don't turn your back on me!" Krieg yelled out as he fired his pistol, signaling the start of the battle.

Luffy easily dodged the bullet as everyone gave a war cry around him. "All right! Now, it's my turn to have fun."

As he fought, Luffy used his Haki to make sure everyone on Merry and Baratie didn't need help. It was also good to know that his cook was awesome! Luffy was thinking about going to help Sanji when the pearl guy showed up, but luckily, Krieg threw a spiked iron ball right on top of the guy, knocking him out and breaking the foothold the cooks brought out, putting out the fire in the process.

"Watch where you throw things!" Luffy yelled. He wasn't worried. He knew Sanji had gotten out of the way of the iron ball.

When Zeff was taken hostage by someone who snuck up on them, Luffy was taken off guard when Sanji told the pirate to shoot him instead.

"Luffy! Behind you!"

He didn't need Nami's warning to know that Don Krieg was going to attack him from behind, but he was so angry that he didn't care. The young captain could feel his cook's resolve to die to save the old man. Before the explosive laced spear landed on his head, Luffy quickly turned to punch the spear, causing it to explode over his head and breaking in the process. With his other hand coated with Armament Haki, he punched Krieg hard enough to break the so-called indestructible gold armor, knocking the man into the sea.

Luffy then jumped over to land in front of Sanji and grabbed the cook by his collar to pull him to his face, which was very uncomfortable, considering the kid was a whole head shorter than Sanji. "Don't you dare die! You're not allowed to die!" he shouted in Sanji's face.

Sanji screwed his face up in anger and shouted back, "What do you know? What do you know about the significance of the kindness I received? What do you know about this restaurant?!"

"So you're going to die for the restaurant?! Are you stupid or something?!"

"What was that?!"

"Dying isn't something you should do to repay kindness! That's not what the old man saved you for! Being given life and yet dying, is something someone weak would do!" Luffy let go of his hold but still looked straight at Sanji's eyes, his voice softening. "I do know. Grandpops, Pops, everyone in my family didn't want me to die for them. They came to save me when I thought they wouldn't. I waited and waited, and it took them a whole day to find me. They came to get me back. Me, who they saved when I was little, even though they didn't have a reason to. Me! So, YES! I do know! But that's the whole reason why I set sail. It's so I can be the Pirate King to give them freedom because the Pirate King has the most freedom in the world! That is my dream." Luffy looked away with his fists shaking by his sides. "I will fight and fight and fight and stay alive for them, no matter what I have to go through. That's why I won't die."

Sanji took a step back in surprise. Then he saw it. "Hey, your dress is on fire," he said in a daze.

"Huh?" Luffy gave him a confused look.

"Your dress! It's on fire! It must have happened when that spear exploded!" Sanji said panicking.

"Ah! My dress! Put it out! Put it out!" Luffy ran around, not knowing what to do. "Oh!" his hit a fist into his hand as an idea came.

What he did next shocked everyone, as 'she' started to pull the dress over 'her' head to take the burning dress off, now only wearing a pair of shorts with a dagger and a small pistol on each leg.

"SHE'S A GUY!" shouted almost everyone there.

"Of course, I'm a guy," Luffy said offended as he tossed the dress into the sea. "What made you think I wasn't?"

"You were wearing a dress!"

"And?" Sanji said calmly, lighting up another cigarette. "How do you suppose we take care of that?" He jerked his thumb towards the pirate holding Zeff hostage.

"Like this." Luffy then disappeared from their sight, only to reappear in front of the pirate, with his hands on the floor and a foot stopping just an inch away from the man's chin, the force of the kick causing a breeze to go through the man's hair.

The man's eyes went cross-eyed as he noticed how close the gold anklet was from his face, before he fell to his butt.

"But I've already taken down his captain, so he doesn't have a reason to fight anymore," Luffy turned to face Sanji. "Besides, he wasn't serious about killing the old man."

"What do you mean?" Sanji asked gathering his wits after seeing his own move being used by someone who wasn't trained under Zeff.

"I knew The Don wouldn't leave without this ship, so I did the only thing I could think of to get you to leave unhurt," the pirate broke down. "You saved my life by feeding me when you didn't have to." He bowed his head on the floor. "We'll leave now that The Don is out of commission. I promise we won't bother you again." He raised his head to look at Luffy, "To think someone would be able to take down the strongest pirate of East Blue."

"Isn't that because you had the biggest number of pirates? Besides, I was told East Blue is the weakest of the Blues," Luffy stated simply.

The pirate laughed at that as he got up. "Weakest or not, it's hard to believe Don Krieg was taken down when he is considered the strongest. You're lucky he didn't resort to his poisonous gas."

"Poison? I can eat that for breakfast," Luffy waved it off, laughing. Those around them laughed at his joke, except for Sanji, who remembered what Luffy said earlier but kept quiet about it.

All the pirates boarded a small dinghy Zeff provided them. "Since you're aiming for the seat of the Pirate King, I take it you're headed to The Grand Line. Just a warning in exchange for our lives. Be careful out there. There are all sorts of strange happenings there."

Luffy laughed as the pirates sailed away. " The Grand Line, strange?" 'Paradise is like my backyard. The New World is my home.' I think that's what Sabo said. I'm not headed to The Grand Line. I'm going home."

"Luffy!" Nami cried out as she and Usopp ran towards them. Neither one of them were brave enough to leave the ship until all the other pirates were gone. "Put this on, or you'll catch a cold!" she lectured as she handed him a fancy blue dress jacket.

"How's Zoro?" Luffy asked worriedly as he put on one of Sabo's old jackets.

"We bandaged him, but he's in bad shape," Usopp said.

"Nami," Luffy's serious voice had her attention. "How long does it take to get to Armong?"

"It should be about 2 days from here."

"When does he expect you back? Do we have time to wait until Zoro wakes up?"

"Yeah," Nami was in awe at how serious he could be at times and how strong he was. "I come and go as I please, so we can leave anytime."

Zoro woke up the next day in a room Zeff let them borrow with Sanji. He lent Nami his room, so she didn't have to sleep with the guys.

"Did we get the cook?" was the first thing he asked when he woke up.

"Yup," Luffy grinned.

"Hey. I never said I'd go with you," Sanji argued.

"But I won you fair and square!" Luffy whined.

"Go with them," Zeff said as he entered the room. "Like the brat said, he won you fair and square." He gave Sanji a smirk then continued before Sanji could argue back. "Just go with them and follow our dream. Go find All Blue. You won't find it by staying here the rest of your life."

Sanji opened his mouth to say something back, but then, he remembered what Luffy said about following his dream for his family who had saved him. "Fine," he grunted.

-*/-*/-*/-*/-*/

 **Omake**

"So what's the sleeping arrangement?" Usopp asked that night after they set sail.

"Tonight is Sanji, then you, then Nami," Luffy said as he yawned, ready for bed.

"Wait, what?" Sanji asked as he settled into the hammock he claimed.

"Luffy doesn't like to sleep alone, so he switches it up every night," Usopp explained.

"Why isn't that moss head in the equation? And aren't you old enough to sleep on your own? HOW OLD ARE YOU ANYWAY?!"

"Fifteen," Luffy huffed.

"Fif-FIFTEEN?! You look like thirteen tops! Get off and sleep in your own hammock!" Sanji tried to push Luffy off.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Usopp said as he handed Sanji a sheet of paper.

His eyes bulged as he read it. "What the fuck is this, and who wrote it?!"

"His family, apparently," Usopp yawned and turned to his side, away from Sanji. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to watch my own organs get pulverized."

The cook looked down to his side where Luffy had already fallen asleep and just gave a sigh and laid down. A few moments later he shot back up. "Wait a minute!" He then was pulled back down by Luffy, where he continued his triad. "What's a healthy teenager doing sleeping with dear, sweet Nami-san!"

"It's not like they do anything. They just sleep. Besides, he's not all that healthy, if you haven't noticed. Though, I wouldn't have noticed if Zoro hadn't said he hadn't eaten his fill in two weeks," Usopp mumbled the last part to himself.

"NO! NEVER! I WILL NEVER LET THAT HAPPEN! I WILL PROTECT NAMI-SAN'S CHASITY!"

"Shut up and go to sleep!" Zoro yelled at him.

Of course, there wasn't much Sanji could do when Nami smacked him over the head for his overactive imagination.

The next day he learned that Nami was the one who picked the clothes and dressed Luffy everyday, and that Luffy doesn't care what she puts on him. Another thing he learned was that he might not have stocked up on enough food for their two-day trip. Especially with Luffy's pestering of snacks in between meals and snacks. Who the hell snacks after and in between snacks?!

-*/

Meanwhile, on an island just five days away from Conomi Island, a Marine ship was docked to restock. In a private cabin sat an old man in front of his desk took a pause from writing his report to look out his window to watch three teens he picked up from his last stop mopping the deck and grinned sharply.

"Monkey D. Luffy, I'm coming for you," the graying man laughed evilly to himself.

* * *

 **A/N:** Sorry for the late post. This just might be the norm now. Sorry!


	7. Chapter 7

Beta by **Navigator101**.

 **Chapter 7**

It was in the early morning hours, while it was still dark out, that Luffy crawled out of Usopp's hammock, careful to not wake anyone else up. He'd been awake for a good half hour before deciding to get up and go on deck where he found Nami staring out at the dark sea.

"What's wrong, Nami? Can't sleep?" he asked once he was within her view, not wanting to startle her.

She heaved a sigh as she slid down the rails and pulled her legs up to lay her head on them, facing away from Luffy. "I'm scared," she admitted. "It's been so much fun sailing with you guys, that it's hard to remember that I'm only teaming up with you temporarily. You're so different from the pirates I steal from, so carefree, doing what you want, and actually caring for one another."

"There's lots of different kinds of pirates out there, not just bad pirates, you know?" Luffy said sitting next to her.

Nami turned her head to give her captain a smile. "No, I don't. You're the first 'good' pirate I've met. That's why I'm scared. I don't want Arlong to kill you. Bell-mere used to be a Marine until she found me and Nojiko. I was told it was a battlefield, and we were the only survivors. She quit her job as a Marine to take care of us. None of us were blood related. We never had enough money and struggled to get by, but we were happy.

She turned to put her face down in between her legs and gave a shaky sigh. "We were happy, even if we couldn't get everything we wanted. Then Arlong came. He killed her. She tried to fight him. She didn't even have a chance. She used to be a Marine, and she didn't even have a chance! She gave him every beli we had so Nojiko and I could live, and he killed her." As much as she wanted to, Nami couldn't cry. She had already cried as much as she could back when it happened.

"You're like me, then," Luffy gave her a smile. "Pops saved me and my brothers, and someone killed Mother. Mother was a reeaaally pretty goldfish. I was told that she was killed because she wanted everyone to get along. I don't get it. But Dad said that there's a lot of people who do things that are stupid because they think they're better than everyone else. Oh! Dad's a dragon. He's so cool! But not as cool as Pops, though. Pops is a pretty and shiny blue fire bird!"

Nami gave a strained smile as she wasn't sure if her captain was being serious or not. If she didn't hear it herself, she would have thought it was Usopp telling another tall tale.

-*\

Sanji was only a little worried when he woke up. It really wasn't his problem if Luffy wasn't with Usopp, where he slept the night before. What worried him a bit was that Luffy was nowhere to be seen in the men's room. He didn't give it much thought and just walked out towards the kitchen after getting dressed. Or he intended to do so until he saw Luffy and Nami sleeping out on the deck, both with their backs against the rails. Sanji ended up turning back around to grab his blanket.

Just as he neared the two, Luffy opened an eye a crack to glare at him. It was a look that sent chills down his spine, causing him to stop in his tracks. This was what told him this kid was not someone to mess with.

When Luffy gave a sleepy blink and blearily opened his eyes, Sanji slowly showed him the blanket he had in his hands, making sure his captain didn't attack him out of sleepy confusion. The blanket was for dear, sweet Nami. He really couldn't give a shit for the kid captain, or so he told himself.

"Sanji," Luffy said slowly, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah," Sanji nodded. "I brought a blanket. Thought Nami would be cold out here."

"Sorry," Luffy yawned. "Habit. Still not used to being away from my family." He gave another yawn. "Nami couldn't sleep, so I told her stories to cheer her up."

Sanji felt that it was fine to get closer to the two and laid the blanket on them. "Breakfast will be ready in an hour. Go back to sleep."

"Okay." The cook watched as Luffy snuggled into Nami and got himself comfortable before going back to sleep.

An hour later Luffy was already awake and sitting next to Nami, who was still asleep when Sanji came back out to wake them for breakfast.

"Morning, Sanji," Luffy greeted cheerily as if he'd been awake the whole time.

"Morning to you too. Breakfast is ready," Sanji said, wondering if he should wake Nami, but Luffy beat him to it, already shaking her roughly.

"Nami, wake up. Sanji made food. Food is ready. Come on. I want to eat."

"I'm awake!" She punched him over the head to get him to stop shaking her. She stretched her arms over her head before standing and taking Luffy's hand into hers. "All right. Let's go change and get ready before we eat."

"I'll go see if the others are up," Sanji said as Nami led Luffy to the only bathroom on board.

It didn't take long for everyone, including Jonny and Yosaku, who slept in the crow's nest the whole night, to gather at the kitchen table. Sanji brought out the last plate of food and set it on the table, noticing one person missing.

Before he could question it, Luffy opened the door to the kitchen, looking like he was about ready to cry, clutching a bundle of blue fabric to his chest. The only thing the kid was wearing was a blue top hat over his straw hat. They all looked towards the captain, realizing that they'd forgotten him.

Usopp, Jonny, and Yosaku were about to apologize for starting without him, when Nami beat them to it. Sanji was the only one to wonder why Luffy was without his clothes.

"Luffy!" she exclaimed, slamming her hands down on the table before rushing towards the captain. "I'm so sorry! I completely forgot!"

Luffy sniffed as he handed the clothes to Nami then wiped his eyes. "It's okay. Nami is still sleepy, but I tried and tried but I couldn't get them on right." The clothes were in a messy pile, clearly unfolded.

For some reason that baffled him, Sanji felt relieved. Luffy was just frustrated with the clothes and not because they forgot him. Although, not being able to put on one's clothes was also baffling. "What's your problem?" he glared at Zoro, who was staring at him.

"I should be asking you that," Zoro said, returning the glare.

Sanji kept his cool, while internally blushing for being caught thinking something confusing. "None of your business, moss head," he waved before walking towards the lovely Nami to see if she needed any help.

"What's this piece for?" Sanji heard Nami mumble to herself, looking at the white frilly thing in her hand. He took in what Luffy had on; blue dress pants, white shirt under a blue jacket, and his usual sandals which looked completely out of place with the obviously high-end clothes.

"Let me see that," Sanji held out his hand for Nami to hand him the neckerchief. With that piece now on, he straightened out the rest of the clothes and took a step back to get a better look. He thought if Luffy combed his hair a bit differently, the kid would definitely pass for nobility easily. "Where'd you get something this expensive?" he asked as he turned around to take a seat at the table. He glared at Zoro, who was already eating, while the other three looked at the swordsman nervously.

"Sabo gave it to me. He can't wear it anymore, so it's mine now," Luffy said as he started to fill his plate with a bit of everything Sanji set out for them. He'd wait until the end before he ate his fill. He wanted to make sure his crew was full first because Pops warned him that his crew would go hungry if he ate everything before they did.

"Why didn't you just find something easier to wear?" Jonny asked as he and everyone else started to eat.

"Nami said to wear something nice, so I picked this," Luffy said proudly. "It's my favorite nice clothes."

"I wanted to make sure he looked presentable when we see Arlong today," Nami answered. Secretly, she enjoyed dressing the boy up. It was too much fun.

"Yeah, but that doesn't say 'pirate.' It's more like, 'I'm a snooty noble. Come rob me.'" Yosaku pointed out.

Nami glared at him, causing him to shrivel in his seat. "I don't care what his clothes say. I said 'presentable.' He had other things that looked nice too, but I wasn't sure how they went on."

"Do you always have someone put your clothes on for you?" Sanji asked.

"Yeah! There's always someone to help me with my clothes. They say it's fun, so I let them. I never got to learn how to put them on," Luffy laughed.

They all wondered what kind of life Luffy had before becoming a pirate captain. He knew Hawk-eye, a warlord. He definitely knew Shanks, one of the Four Pirate Emperors. He was way too short for his age, or was it because he's part of a race of short people? He's got a tattoo on his back. And he had people to dress him and most likely let him do whatever he wanted to do, spoiling him.

Jonny felt like he'd seen Luffy's tattoo from somewhere but couldn't remember where.

Sanji knew that Luffy was picked up by some pirate crew when he was young, along with his two brothers and were starved in the picture Zeff had. He really should have asked the old man for more information about his weird captain when he had the chance. There was also the kick from when the old man was taken hostage. Either the kid was able to learn it by watching him, or it was just chance that the attack looked like one that Zeff had taught him.

Zoro, the only person there who didn't care about his captain's past, was the first person to finish eating. "So we're attacking fishmen today?" he asked.

Usopp swallowed and pushed his plate away, suddenly losing his appetite. "D-d-do we have to?" he stuttered as he looked around the table before his eyes landed on Nami. "I mean, of course we do! I, The Great Usopp, will lend a hand to free Nami's village!"

"Right. So? Do we have a plan?" Sanji asked, looking at Luffy.

Luffy paused and gave it a thought. "Nami?"

"Well, I think we should avoid fighting if at all possible. With what I got from Buggy, I think I have enough to buy back the village," Nami said, determined to find a way to save this crew from Arlong's wrath. "The rest of the money is buried in the tangerine grove. We can dock the ship near my house, and I can get the money together to hand over to Arlong. We should see the island soon."

"Okay," Luffy said, grabbing everything that was left on the table to shove in his mouth. "We'll do what Nami wants. If it doesn't work, then we'll just beat them up."

"Dear Nami-swan, you come up with the best ideas," Sanji gushed before turning to Zoro, who grunted in dissatisfaction. "What was that, you invalid?"

"Invalid or not, I can still fight. I think that's just naive to think that we'd get away without fighting. What makes you think this Arlong will keep his word?" Zoro scoffed.

Luffy slammed his hands down on the table, cutting off anymore arguing. "We'll try it Nami's way first," he repeated himself.

"Why are we following someone who's only allying with us temporarily? She said it herself," Zoro argued. "We can find another navigator."

"I don't want another navigator," Luffy pouted. "I want Nami. We'll do what Nami says first, but," he kept his eyes on Zoro, but also gave Nami a look, "if he doesn't do what she wants, then we're fighting him. We're not leaving the next island without Nami."

"Fine," Zoro relented.

Nami looked down and spoke softly, "I really enjoyed my time with you guys, and if I could, I'd love to continue sailing with you, as your navigator, but I have to save my village first. I'd do anything to buy back their freedom, even if I have to…"

"Don't worry, Nami-swan," Sanji said kneeling in front of her, taking her hand, "if these baboons won't help you, then I will. I'll never leave a damsel in distress."

"Hopefully Nami-Anekii's plan works. I don't think Luffy-Anikii understand how dangerous fishmen are," Yosaku whispered to Jonny who nodded in agreement.

"Ooo. I just thought of a great idea!" Luffy said before bolting out of the kitchen.

Just then, the ship lurched sideways, causing everyone to lose their footing, breaking a few plates in the process. After the ship was settled, they all went out to see what Luffy did. Only, they didn't make it past the door as Nami and Usopp were blocking their path. Instead, they all squeezed their heads out the door and window to see what had them too shocked to move.

"What the hell is that idiot doing at a time like this?!" Sanji shouted from the window.

"I don't see how arguing with a sea king is a great idea," Usopp whimpered.

Jonny and Yosaku whimpered in agreement from under the table where they had taken refuge after seeing Luffy gesturing wildly and yelling at the sea king.

"That's Mohmoo," Nami whispered, but it was loud enough for everyone to hear. "He's with Arlong."

The sea cow gave a loud moo in defiance, only for Luffy to give it another lump on it's head with a rubbery punch. It then lowered it's head and gave a pitiful moo. Their captain turned around to give his crew a peace sign and a wide smile.

"He said he'll give us a ride to Nami's island," he announced.

There was a moment of silence before they all finally found their voice to yell out "WHAT?!"

"I said he'll take us to Nami's island," Luffy huffed, annoyed that they didn't hear him the first time.

"Why?" Usopp wailed.

"Because it'll be faster. The faster we save Nami's village, the faster we get to keep Nami," Luffy reasoned.

"Luffy! He's with Arlong!" Nami tried to talk him out of it.

"So?'

"So?! So?!' Nami screeched before giving up. "Fine. Do what you want."

Zoro had left them after hearing the announcement the first time and came back with some ropes to help Luffy tie Mohmoo up to the ship. Once they were done and moving, Luffy kept encouraging the sea cow to go faster and faster, clearly enjoying himself from the top of it's head.

"Is that safe?" Usopp yelled worriedly to Zoro as they picked up speed to the point that they were all holding onto the railings to stay on the ship. "I mean, Devil Fruit users can't swim right?"

Zoro didn't bother to answer, only to grunt as they hit another large wave, sending the ship out of the water for a brief second.

Mohmoo was visibly tired and out of breath when the island finally came into view but continued on at the same speed in his hurry to get rid of the crazy pirate on him. He went so fast that he ended up beaching himself, which caused him to flip his tail and send the ship up in the air.

Luffy ended up falling onto the beach when they landed and looked up when he heard screams from above. He watched as Merry flew right over him and into a forest.

"Hey, you stupid cow! You just threw my crew!" Luffy punched the tired sea cow once more before marching away angrily. He didn't go straight into the forest to find his crew since he knew they were fine. Instead, he went exploring.

He wasn't expecting to see a village so soon after leaving Mohmoo since there was no presence of life there. He was actually going towards where he could feel a lot of people, which was in this direction.

After giving a whistle of amazement at the sight, Luffy decided to explore the deserted village a bit more. The buildings were all flipped upside down, and there was a deep gouge on the dirt path in a straight line. He decided to follow the trail just out of curiosity. It lead him straight to the sea.

He scratched his head in confusion before heading back to the strange village with the upside down buildings. Maybe there would be hidden treasures or something in them.

After hours of crawling up, down, in, and out of the buildings, the only things he found were rotten foods and cobwebs. Everything else was trashed from being thrown up and down. Now that he was done with his disappointing adventure, he decided to head towards where he knew there were people.

On his way there, he found Zoro, Usopp, and Sanji standing under some shade. Though Zoro was napping and looking worse for wear from his wound from Mihawk.

"Oh! You guys are okay!" Luffy shouted as he ran towards them. "How's Merry? Is she okay? Where'd Nami go?"

"Merry seems fine," Usopp answered. "She's sturdy, considering we rammed through a few trees before landing. Nami took off with all our treasure as soon as we landed. We don't know where she went. We spent about an hour trying to get Merry back to sea, but we barely moved her. Then Jonny and Yosaku left to find Nami. We're just taking a break from looking for you."

"Ah~ My poor Nami-chan. She must have missed her village so much that she went to check up on it," Sanji swooned with his hands to his heart.

"Zoro doesn't look so good," Luffy commented, crouching in front of the swordsman. He really should pick up Chopper soon.

"Well, yeah. A Shichibukai nearly killed him. The bumpy ride and landing didn't help either," Usopp said worriedly.

"Hmm. Then you guys stay here. I'm gonna go for a walk and explore," Luffy said, as he stood up and walked away.

-*/

When Luffy finally reached the village, there was a commotion among the villagers, who were all armed with whatever weapons they could find, be it a pitchfork or a frying pan. As he got closer he could hear an old man with lots of scars rallying the group, "We tried to be patient and leave things be as long as Nami was happy! But his answer was to betray Nami! Now that our chance for freedom is gone, we have no hope! More than that, we must make those fishmen pay for toying with Nami's kindness…"

The man trailed off as there was a tap on his shoulder. He looked behind him to see a nicely dressed boy looking at him with wide eyes.

"What are you guys doing?" Luffy asked.

"You don't look like you're from around here. Where did you come from? Better yet, you better leave this island before you get caught up in our fight," the old man said with a stern face.

"You were talking about Nami," Luffy smiled. "She's my navigator. She's great! Are you going to fight for her? I don't think that's a good idea. Nami wouldn't be happy if you guys got hurt."

A girl with light blue hair and a bandage over one shoulder walked up to them. "You must be part of the pirate crew Nami told me about. I'm her sister, Nojiko. Not too long ago, Nami was at our house. A marine captain by the name of Nezumi came and dug up our tangerine grove to find Nami's hidden treasures. I'm sure it was an order from Arlong. Even the marines here are too scared of Arlong to go against him," she spat.

"We can't even rely on the government for help. That rat took everything Nami had collected over the past eight years." She paused to calm herself down. "Look, I'm grateful for all you've done for Nami, but this is our fight. Those fishmen are out of your league. Nami's on her way to confront Arlong, and we're going to go help her."

The crowd behind her roared their agreement.

"Luffy-anikii!" Jonny and Yosaku yelled for him.

"Nami-anekii is," Jonny started as they both stopped before him, out of breath. "Nami-anekii is!"

"She just had a fight with Arlong!" Yosaku finished.

"Hmm? Nami's right there," Luffy pointed behind them.

They both turned behind them to see Nami walking up to them with anger in her eyes. She stopped to grab some ropes off a stall without paying and stomped her way towards Luffy.

"You're coming with me," she said as she started to tie him up, then looked up at the crowd with a strained smile. "Don't worry, everyone. I've got this under control. I still have a way to get this island back from Arlong." She then proceeded to punch Luffy until there were lumps and bruises all over his face.

Yosaku and Jonny could only look on in surprise, not even thinking to try and stop Nami from beating up her captain, only remembering after she was already dragging him away from the stunned villagers.

They both ran after the two, stopping only at the stone wall and gate separating Arlong Park from the rest of the island. Too afraid to go any further into Fishmen territory, they peered in from where they stood and saw Nami with Luffy still bound, standing in front of Arlong.

"Oh? What do we have here?" Arlong asked Nami as he sneered down at the captive.

The navigator looked at the much larger Fishman defiantly. "I kidnapped him off the last island I stopped at as an insurance. He's a noble, so I'm sure his family has all the money you want. I'll just have him call his parents and get the 100,000,000 beli in exchange for this island."

"Hmm," Arlong hummed with his hand under his chin in amusement, studying the beaten boy who was looking at the fishman in curiosity. "Acting like a real pirate, now, are we? All right," he said, laughing.

"Fine. Let's go. I don't have my den den mushi with me," she said as she took hold of Luffy's rope.

"What are you talking about, my dear Nami. I have one right here you can use," the Fishman said, pulling out a snail from his shirt, causing her to sweat. "You can make the call right here in front of me. There's no need to be shy."

Seeing that this wasn't going anywhere, Luffy broke the rope he was tied with and reached under the top had to bring out a baby den den mushi. "You want 100,000,000 beli for this island, right?" He proceeded to make a call before getting an answer and grinned widely when the snail was answered.

Nami and the fishmen around them looked surprised when the snail's eyes shined, and there was an image of a forest being projected before it.

"I've never seen a den den mushi do that before," Nami said in awe.

"That's because my brothers made it," Luffy laughed.

"Lu-ya?" Came a tired voice from the snail.

"Torao! What are you doing? I can't see you," Luffy pouted.

"One of my guy decided that getting shot would be a grand idea, so I'm currently digging out a bullet. I'm a bit too busy to show my face. What do you need?"

"100,000,000 beli," Luffy stated easily.

"Why?" the snail sighed as if it wasn't surprised by the request.

"I want to buy an island."

"You already have an island. We don't need another one. Where are you?"

"East Blue, and I really need to buy this island. Do we have 100,000,000 beli?"

"Captain! Who is that? He's cute. A noble? Hey, Captain, are you friends with a noble? I thought you didn't like them." There were so many voices and faces crowding the snail to get a better look.

"THAT'S MY LITTLE SISTER! STOP CROWDING!" came a shout, causing the people on the other end to clam up.

Annoyed at how long this was taking, Arlong grabbed the snail from Luffy's hand to sneer at it. "This kid is my hostage. Give me 500,000,000 beli, and I'll free him and this island. I'm sure Mummy and Poppy have at least that much laying around," he laughed.

"Here, Captain, it's for you," one of the guys said in a subdued voice, turning the snail towards a man laying down, front covered in blood.

Then a bloody hand showed, picking up the snail on the other end, showing another man with a scowl on his face. His voice was low and calm as he spoke. "One, we don't have a 'Mummy' or a 'Poppy'. Two, call home and that island wouldn't even need a name anymore. You must not keep up with the news if you don't recognize who the 'kid' is. Three, if you hurt Lu-ya, I'll find a way to teleport there and dissect you alive, Shark Face. Now, if you don't mind, I need to patch this idiot up before he bleeds to death."

Arlong threw the den den mushi on to the ground once he was hung up on.

"Hey, don't break it. That's the only one I have," Luffy cried out as he picked up the snail and checked to make sure it wasn't broken.

"Sounds like someone's cranky," Sanji said, coming up from behind. He and Zoro had heard the whole conversation and only walked towards them once they realized things didn't go the way Nami had planned. "And die he call you his sister?"

"Nah, Torao's always grumpy. My family thought it'd be funny to trick Torao into thinking I was a girl," Luffy smiled at them from where he was still seated on the ground.

"So what now, Luffy?" Zoro asked, his hands already on his swords. He really didn't care about the whole sister/brother thing. There's a fish guy here that needed to be taken down.

"Now, we beat them up," Luffy jumped up, ready to fight.

Arlong quickly grabbed Nami by the throat and dangled her a foot off the ground. "Now, now. You wouldn't want me to accidentally snap her neck, would you?"

Quicker than anyone could blink, Luffy had already punched Arlong in the stomach, causing the fishman to release Nami as he crashed into the large building.

Zoro and Sanji both blinked in surprise and looked from Arlong's angry face to Luffy's steaming pink form leaning over Nami. They both came to the realization that they've yet to see Luffy fight with everything he has.

The young captain took off his strawhat and placed it on Nami's head, leaving the top hat on his own, before helping her up. "Take care of this for me," he told her before shoving her towards the crowd at the entrance of Arlong Park.

Dazed and confused, Nami did as she was told and found her way towards the people of her village, who then quickly checked to make sure she was all right. Then she realized what Luffy had given to her. She reached up to gently touch the hat, the hat that Luffy wouldn't let anyone touch. He had placed it on her head, entrusting his treasure to her. Tears came without her wanting them to, and she looked up to see Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji fighting the fishmen.

Then a rock came from a hole in the wall, hitting one of the fishmen with a long lip. "Don't forget me, the Great Usopp," Usopp proudly proclaimed, before whimpering when the one he hit glared at him.

Nami could only laugh through her tears, seeing that even the scaredy cat of the crew was helping to fight to free her island. She then saw that the fishman Usopp had hit was running after him. She turned around to see Usopp running away and tried to get away from the crowd that was stopping her to help her friend.

She caught a glimpse of Luffy looking Usopp's way, before continuing to fight. The fact that Luffy didn't seem concerned calmed her. She somehow knew that if Usopp was in danger, her captain would have stopped the fishman from going after Usopp. But he didn't.

Her thought caused her to stop her struggles. Her captain. Yes. He was her captain. Her heart had already decided that she would travel with him, to navigate Grand Line for him. At first, she was sure she'd stay on this island, her home, if they ever got rid of Arlong. But Luffy had convinced her that a life of piracy wasn't all she thought it was. Sure, there will be dangers, that just meant she had to get stronger. Besides, she enjoyed having a little brother.

-*\

Luffy looked at all the fishmen before them and judged that both Zoro and Sanji wouldn't be able to handle all of them. Especially with Zoro being injured from his fight with Mihawk. He was barely able to stand as it was. Luffy let them fight one each as he took on the rest.

He saw one leave, chasing Usopp, but he knew Usopp was cunning enough to take that one down alone. Letting that one go, Luffy stayed with Zoro and Sanji to take down as many small fries as he could, instead of going after Arlong, who ran into the large building.

As he fought, he slowly forgot where he was. It was so much like when he fought random pirates with his family that he started laughing as if he was having fun. It was so much fun to let loose and take down idiots who thought they could beat them. So lost in his fun of kicking and punching that he almost didn't duck in time when a saw-like sword came at him.

"How dare you laugh at my downed brethren! We are fishmen! Stronger than you puny humans. There's no way you could have taken them all down on your own," Arlong seethed. "What kind of trick did you use?"

"I didn't use any trick," Luffy said as he picked his nose. "I just beat them up."

"Impossible!" Arlong took another swing at the other captain.

Luffy stood back up after ducking again and looked around. There weren't many left. "At least I didn't kill any of them. Looks like I have to get serious with you, though."

The young captain took a stance that Arlong would recognize easily. "Gyojin Karate," Luffy said in a low voice as he grinned, the rim of the top hat shading his eyes.

Arlong stood, slack-jawed, as the surrounding fishmen who decided to try and attack all at once, while Luffy was distracted by Arlong, easily fell unconscious around them. "Karakusagawara Seiken," the young captain finished the name of the attack, grin widening at Arlong's shocked face.

"How? HOW?!" Arlong yelled, swinging his sword down toward's Luffy's head.

Luffy took a step to the right before letting loose another attack, "Samehada Shotei," knocking the sword out of the fishman's hands. "Since you don't like being beaten by a human, I'll do you a favor and beat you up with Fishman Karate."

"How can some human brat from East Blue master those moves?" Arlong cried out as he unleashed powerful punches, all of which were easily dodged.

"Because I'm not from East Blue," Luffy muttered in the fishman's ear as he neared. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm going to be the Pirate King!" He called out as he sent a punch a few inches from Arlong's midsection sending the fishman crashing into the building.

Not giving the enemy any time to get back up, Luffy quickly entered Gear Second by pumping one of his leg as he ran. "Gomu Gomu no Samegawara Seiken!" He sent another punch directly into Arlong's stomach, causing the fishman to cough up blood and pass out.

Luffy turned around to see that the fighting had finished, even Usopp was back, all battered. He smiled at them and gave them a peace sign to assure them they had won. Just as he was about to take a step forward, he gave a yell of pain.

Arlong had gotten up and grabbed hold of Luffy's shoulder with his teeth. "You made the mistake of not finishing me off, but then again, a brat like you probably never killed anyone in your life," Arlong laughed.

Turning his head to look at Arlong, Luffy gave a chuckle. "My brothers and I have killed more than anyone should have in a lifetime." With those parting words, he pulled out his gun from his thigh holster and shot the fishman in the forehead, ensuring he was dead and would no longer be a danger to anyone. "That hurts, Fish Face," Luffy grumbled as he held his bleeding shoulder.

All there were stunned silent, surprised at the fact that a young boy had just killed someone so easily, before the villagers cheered.

It didn't take long for Nami to snap out of it and run towards Luffy. "Luffy! Are you okay?"

"Yeah. It hurts though," Luffy pouted.

"You just killed someone," she said frantically. "Are you sure you're okay?"

That knocked some sense into Zoro and Sanji and they quickly made their way to their captain. Judging by the reaction, Zoro was sure that wasn't Luffy's first kill.

"Normally, a person isn't 'okay' after killing someone," Sanji said. "They'd be freaking out. Especially, someone as young as you."

"But I'm not okay. See?" he pointed to his wound. "It hurts!"

"And a normal person would be screaming in pain right now," Zoro grunted from his pain, as his eyes searched his captain's face for any discomfort.

"Well, I've been told I'm not normal. I've never been normal. I hurt. Can we eat now?" Luffy pouted, trying to hide his fear of scaring his new crew.

Nami dispelled any further comments by urging Luffy to see a doctor, which he was quick to deny. All he needed was Sanji's food, and he'd be fine.

"Hold it right there!" a marine with a mouse ear hoody called out, halting all cheers with a smug smile. The group of marines behind him had their guns pointed towards the villagers and the pirates. "What a lucky day. I can't believe Arlong Pirates would lose to some nameless pirates like you. However, thanks to you, all the money I was to give to Arlong and all property in Arlong Park is now mine. So drop all your weapons. I, Captain Nezumi, will take all your credit and be promoted -"

He didn't get to finish as he and his fellow marines felt a chill down their spine.

Luffy cracked his knuckles as he walked up to the marines his haki focused on them. "Are you the rat that stole Nami's treasure?" he asked in a low voice, giving his worst glare to the captain from under the top hat.

"Those were stolen from pirates anyway," the marine cried out as he tried to get away from the angry captain. "That means, those treasures belong to the marines, to me!"

"Nami, he's yours," Luffy said as he grabbed Nezumi by his shoulder and tossed him to Nami, who then proceeded to take out her anger on the marine with her bo staff.

Luffy turned his eyes towards the rest of the marines with their guns now trained on him. Normally, they would have shot by now, but for reasons unknown to them, they were frozen by fear of this child. "You guys are marines. Yet, you didn't help the people who depended on you. You need retraining, and I know the best person for it," he gave them an evil grin, before knocking them all out with haki.

A quick look to Zoro to see that they both agreed that something was weird about their captain, Sanji shrugged and left to make some food for Luffy, leaving the clean up to the villagers.

Making food for Luffy ended up being cooking for the village. The whole village decided to celebrate the defeat of Arlong's Pirate crew. Sanji noticed that once the party was in full swing, Luffy had disappeared with a huge plate of food.

The sun was starting to set and Sanji left the rest of the cooking to the villagers who volunteered to help so that he could find his captain. He even brought a heaping plate with him.

He found the young captain under a tree, talking to someone on the den den.

"…and then the bastard got back up and bit me," Luffy pointed to his bandaged shoulder that Nami insisted he get checked, "so I shot him."

The crowd in the projection from the den den cheered, causing Luffy to laugh. 'Well, at least the kid is happy,' Sanji thought as he placed the plate of food before his captain, just as the rest of the crew showed up and sat around their captain.

"Ooo. Thanks, Sanji! Oh! This is Sanji. My cook. I just picked him up. He's awesome! His food is soooooo good! And that's Zoro. He's going to be the World's Best Swordsman. And that's Usopp. His dad is Yasopp. His stories are so funny. And that's Nami. She's our navigator. We just saved her village."

"You found someone to cook for you? How is it? Can you eat his food?" someone asked.

Sanji took offense to that. "Of course, he can eat my cooking! Are you saying my food is shit before even trying it?!"

"Yeah! Watch this!" Luffy proceeded to eat as if he were starving to show them, enjoying every bite.

Someone on the other end popped his head right in front of the den den's monitor, wearing a chef's hat. "Hey, don't take it personally. We're just worried about his sensitive stomach, what with him being poisoned and stuff."

"POISONED!" Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, and Nami yelled at him.

"Oh? He didn't tell you?" Someone else on the other end piped up.

"It's not important," Luffy said with his mouthful. "Sanji's food is good." That's what was important.

"I just told Pops what happened. I'll be sure to pass it on to Jinbe too, yoi." They didn't get to see who was talking that time because the person was behind the large group, which winced at the sound of his voice.

"Thanks, Pops," Luffy said around a mouthful of food.

"Now, then. What are you lot doing here, yoi?" The person said in a threatening voice.

"We're just catching up with little Luffy," someone whined.

"Yeah, look! He even has someone to help him put clothes on."

"Of course. Our Luffy only picks the best!"

"Then why are you here?"

"What was that?"

A brawl started, causing Luffy to laugh at them. Then someone knocked into the table the den den was on and was kicked this way and that.

"KNOCK IT OFF!" came a shout and all movement stopped. "If any one of you step on that snail, it's toilet duty-yoi! Now where is that damn den den?!"

Luffy giggled, but it was loud enough for the people on the other end to hear.

"Feeling better, Luffy? Find that den den-yoi!"

"Yeah," the young captain giggled. "Pops, did I do wrong?"

"No. No, you didn't. You did what you had to do to protect your crew. I'm proud of you-yoi. Just remember that you can't get along with everyone. If they want to leave, then let them. You can always start over again or come back home for a while-yoi. We all miss you and your shenanigans."

"Shi-nan-nan-"

"Shenanigans. We miss you and your crazy self, yoi."

"I miss you guys too."

"GOD DAMMIT, GUYS! LOOK DOWN! WHY WOULD THE DEN DEN BE ON THE CEILING?!" There was a moment of just the sounds of panicked movement before a calm threat was easily heard through the noise, "If I don't get to see Luffy before he hangs up, I'm tossing you to the twins-yoi."

Luffy snickered at the panicked cries before hanging up on his family.

"Interesting lot," Sanji commented.

Luffy giggled. "That's my family."

"You sure it's ok to hang up on them like that?" Usopp asked.

"Yeah, it's fine," was the answer before Luffy turned to face them and bowed with his head to the ground. "I'm sorry."

"You don't need to be sorry for killing Arlong," Nami said soothingly.

"No. I'm not sorry for killing him. I'm sorry for scaring you and for not being normal," Luffy picked up his head to clarify.

"You're right. You're not normal," Nami said with her arms folded. "But neither are these two. You three and your monstrous strength," she huffed before jabbing a finger at Zoro's chest. "And you! You should be sleeping at the doctor's place like you were told to. You're still injured from Mihawk and should be resting. Fighting those fishmen just made it worse."

Sanji laughed at the look of fear on Zoro's face before his eyes turned to hearts when Nami turned to do the same to him. "And you should be resting also."

"Ah, my Nami-san is worried about me, but it seems that my talent for cooking was needed," Sanji said as he took her hand in his. "It seems this idiot captain can't eat anything but my cooking." A thought came to his mind as he let go of her and turned to face Luffy. "That reminds me. I didn't get to ask about what you can and can't eat. You should have told me you have a sensitive stomach."

"It's fine," Luffy said, pulling out a bottle from a pouch. "I have this. It makes my tummy feel better when I eat bad things."

"That's not fine," Sanji picked his captain up by the front of his shirt and shook him. "I'm your cook. Everything I make has to stay in your stomach and keep you full. If I ever make something you can't eat, be sure to tell me."

"Ok."

He put his captain down. "That means I'm going with you. I don't know what you talked about with that Pops of yours, but I'm staying. I'm not going anywhere," Sanji said as he took a drag from his cigarette. "I made a promise to myself that I would find those kids in that picture the old geezer had and feed them until they were satisfied. I found one," he pointed to Luffy, "now I need to find the other two. So I'm not leaving."

"I've already decided that I'm going with you, too," Nami said with her fists on her hips.

"Me too," Usopp said with a serious face, looking to the ground. "I mean, after today's fight, I need to learn to man up and be as good as my dad. You said my dad was a great sharpshooter, right? So I need to be better than him, because my dream is to be a great warrior of the sea. Not-no-not that I'm scared or anything."

Luffy cheered, happy to be able to keep them all. "I thought I scared you guys," he laughed.

Zoro closed his eyes and leaned into the tree, tired and ready for a nap. "As if you could get rid of us."

-*\

It took them and a few strong villagers to try and move Merry from where it landed in the forest. Luffy was ecstatic to see that Merry was still in one piece and able to sail.

They tried dragging the ship, but it was too heavy and the trees were in the way. They even contemplated chopping the trees down and using the logs to roll the ship, but that would have taken them too long. Especially with Zoro out of commission. After the party, he'd been sleeping day in and day out, waking only a few hours at a time, which the doctor was adamant he do. At least the wound was getting better.

After the third day of contemplating on how to get the ship down, Luffy decided the fastest way would be to use Gomu Gomu Bazooka. Which he did without even consulting anyone. That ended with Nami scolding him for not warning anyone about what he was going to do and Usopp passed out from fright on the deck of the ship.

Luckily, the ship didn't land too far from the island. It was close enough for Sanji to swim out there and steer it to an open dock and set anchor.

Arlong's crew and the rat marines were all tied and locked up in an old barn that no one used anymore.

A week passed, as they stayed on the island. Luffy had wanted to make sure Zoro was healed before they left and because he wanted to make sure the prisoners didn't escape before the marine he called got there.

He'd just finished breakfast and was about to pester Nami into taking a nap with him in her tangerine grove, he loved the smell there. Then his den den mushi went off.

"Luffy, run! Gramps has a new marine uniform for you!" came a panicked shout from the den den mushi before the young captain said anything. The image it was projecting was of the sea going by very quickly.

"What's wrong with that? The other one is already too small," Luffy gave the den den a confused look.

"It's the mini skirt version!" a different voice cried out. "We just finally esca-"

Luffy didn't bother hearing the rest of his brother's complaints. He quickly hung up and ran around to gather his crew. He had to leave. Now!

Of course, none of them understood why he was in a hurry to leave when he wasn't before. All they got out of him was, "We have to leave now! The mini skirt is almost here!"

"But what about the pirates and the marines?" Nami asked.

"They're fine. I'll knock them all out again if you want," Luffy said as he urgently persuaded her to get the ship ready to sail. "And the good marines will be here sometime today. Come on. Please? I don't wanna wear a mini skirt," he whined.

They all gave him a confused look before shrugging and started to do last minute restocking so they could set sail the soonest they could. They were gone hours before Garp made it to Cocoyashi Village.

It was only after the Strawhat Pirates had left that Jonny remembered where he'd seen the tattoo from and worried for Zoro's future.

-*\\-*\\-*\\-*\\-*\

 **Omake**

"Where are you boys at-yoi?" Marco's angry voice came from Ace's den den.

"Almost to calm belt," Ace answered.

"What's taking you so long? You should be closer to home by now," Marco sighed. "Didn't you leave Luffy almost two months ago-yoi?"

"Yeah, well…" Ace looked to Sabo, who was riding his own Striker next to him.

"Luffy made this friend, you see," Sabo started, only to have Marco sigh and roll his eyes. "This new friend of his wanted to be a marine, right? Well, this and that happened, and well…"

"Let's just say that Luffy wanted to make sure his friend was in good hands, so we had to stay and make sure he made it to Gramps. Problem was we were waiting for Gramps there anyway because the shitty old geezer was supposed to drop off Striker 1 and 2, since Luffy took our boat with his new crewmate," Ace took over. He was taken by surprise when right next to him, his blond brother burst into flames with a scowl on his face.

"That shitty geezer held our Striker as hostages just because he wanted to use us to train his new recruits. There was no training! All he did was beat us up and made us clean a stupid marine ship! WE'RE PIRATES! WHY ARE WE MOPPING A MARINE'S DECK!" Sabo screamed.

"Yeah, that's what happened," Ace said as he inched a bit further from Sabo. "It took a while to get Gramps to lower his guard so we could take Stricker back."

"The shitty geezer even had the nerve to commision a marine uniform for Luffy!" Sabo continued his tirade after getting his breath. "Miniskirt of all things! Doesn't he know Luffy hates those things?"

"I see," Marco deadpanned. He figured Sabo's attitude had something to do with Luffy. It was the only thing that could rile up the normally calm and collected teen.

"I swear that man is trying to turn us into marines in his own twisted way. Remember the time he tossed us in prison on that one island?" Ace laughed.

"Oh, I remember that," Sabo said, calming down. "That was fun actually."

"The four of you leveled their base while taunting and laughing at the marines. I'm sure you gave them all nightmares for some time-yoi," a small smile tugged on one side of Marco's lip. "Speaking of Luffy, the visual den den you left broke, Sabo. Luffy called a couple of nights ago, and a few of the idiots here snuck in to talk to him when I left for a few minutes to report to Pops. Someone stepped on it-yoi."

"They did what?!" Sabo flared up once more. "Don't they know parts for those things aren't easy to come by?! They're going to pay," he growled.

No wonder Pops is moody, Ace thought.

"I left the names of everyone that was in the room for you," Marco smirked. "I didn't even get to see Luffy's face one last time. So have fun. Anyway, we'll meet you after you get out of calm belt-yoi."

Ace was already planning on the revenge prank before Marco even hung up. His family would have to learn the hard way that you don't mess with his brother's inventions. Oh, this was going to be fun. Too bad Torao and Luffy wouldn't be there to see it.

 **A/N:** Super, super sorry for taking so long. I've been really busy with this and that, and then things and stuff happened. I hope you enjoy this chapter. ๑•́ㅿ•̀๑) ᔆᵒʳʳᵞ


	8. Chapter 8

Beta by **Navigator101**.

 **Chapter 8**

Sanji took a seat on the deck with the rest of the crew, after bringing the last of the food, where they were having a picnic at Luffy's insistence. Something about bonding time or whatever. The captain was already stuffing himself as usual. The first to start, and the last to finish. The cook wondered if he'd ever fed Luffy until he was completely full. Oh, well. He'd just continue to cook a little more each meal until he was sure his captain was satisfied.

"That reminds me," Nami said, cutting through the laughter, "Luffy, your brother said something about already having an island?"

"Yeah," Luffy answered with a full mouth before swallowing everything quickly. "It's so green and cool! We even built a castle on it."

"Oh yeah? The Great Usopp has an island or two of his own," Usopp boasted with a fist to his chest. "One is so small that it isn't even worth talking about, but the other one is where I hide all my eight thousand followers until I call for them."

"That's so cool, Usopp! Our island isn't big enough for that many people. It's barely big enough for our whole family," Luffy laughed.

"Oh? How many people are in your family?" Sanji asked, assuming that his family was the pirate crew that saved him and his brothers. He could probably narrow it down to which crew by numbers alone. Working in a sea restaurant so close to Grand Line, one had to keep up with the pirates in the news in case a big name showed up.

"More than a thousand, I think," Luffy mused with a finger and thumb under his chin. "Lots more if you count extended family. I'm not sure exactly how many there are." Luffy looked proud of how large his family was.

"That's a lot of people," Nami gave him a disbelieving look. "How do you even keep track of who's who with that many people around?" She highly doubted there were any ships that sailed around with that many people, much less ships that could hold thousands.

"Don't know. I just do. Why wouldn't I know who's family? Family is more important than any treasure in the world. Grandpops said so. Besides, I saw them every day, of course I'd know them all."

Damn, that's a lot of people. Sanji didn't think there were that many pirate crews with that many people sailing around together that often. Actually, the only ones that came to mind easily would be Big Mom, Whitebeard, and The Beast Pirates. That's three out of four Emperors.

…..

Sanji wasn't sure how long he blanked out. Looking at how much food was left, long enough for him to go make more food. By the sound of the conversation going on, Nami and Usopp didn't believe that Luffy was telling the truth. Of course, Moss Head was too busy inhaling alcohol to even pay attention.

He got up to go to the kitchen to cook a bit more while he got his mind back in order. If Luffy really was part of an Emperor's crew, he wondered if that would mean anything to them. Luffy did leave to build his own crew. That did mean that they're separate from them, right? But having the protection of an Emperor would be a good thing for their safety, wouldn't it?

Out of the three, Big Mom and Whitebeard seemed likely. There's no way someone like Kaido would just randomly pick up helpless children. Now that he thought about it, Sanji wasn't sure which was the better choice.

Wait. Wait. Luffy had a tattoo. Tattoos usually had some kind of meaning. So start there. He could be wrong. Most pirates usually have their jolly roger as their tattoo. Luffy's had three letters, ASL, each in different colors with what looked like blue flaming wings on each side of the letters. What pirate crew did that tattoo symbolize? He knew it looked familiar, but it was only familiar enough for it to tingle his mind.

No. No. Wait. No point in giving himself a headache thinking about it. He might as well just ask it right out.

And he did just that after placing two more large plates of meat down. "So who did you sail under?" he asked casually.

Nami and Usopp turned to give the blond a confused look.

"What are you talking about, Sanji?" Usopp laughed at him. "It's probably some small no-named crew we wouldn't recognize."

"Where'd you get that idea from? Don't tell me you actually believe everything he said. We don't need to play along with his imagination," Nami said in a low voice so Luffy couldn't hear.

"Whitebeard," Luffy answered, stopping all movement. Even Zoro choked on his drink at the declaration. Sanji was the only one that wasn't as surprised as he thought he would be.

Zoro finally finished choking and cleared his throat, while Nami and Usopp screeched in fear. They both threw themselves at Luffy, covering his mouth as they looked around in fear. Even they'd heard of someone that important. Who didn't know the Four Emperors of the Sea?

"Luffy," Zoro coughed once more to clear his throat, "that's not just any pirate you can claim to be under. Whitebeard is the Strongest Man in the World. I'm pretty sure a man of that caliber wouldn't like having people using his name so easily."

"Okay," Luffy tilted his head to the side in confusion and looked at Sanji, who seemed like the only one who believed him.

Sanji only took another calming drag from his cigarette and shrugged. At least his suspicions had been confirmed, and he finally remembered what group that tattoo belonged to. ASL, the Children from Hell, or something like that. Not that knowing any of that would make any difference. Just satisfy his curiosity. And if Whitebeard or whoever decided to rain hell on them, he'd protect Nami-san with his life. The rest could drown in hell for all he cared.

"What brought on that question?" Usopp asked.

"Just remembering the picture the geezer had and wondering which pirate crew was crazy enough to take on this bottomless pit."

"Oh, that's right. You and your brothers were picked up by a pirate crew. What were they like?" Nami asked. "Were they scary? Where did they leave you?"

"Nope. They were super nice. Sometimes they would leave us by ourselves for days or weeks just so they could go do something without us. That wasn't as fun. We'd run out of food before they get back, so we had to find our own food. There was this one time, the whole island burned, and it wasn't even our fault," Luffy pouted.

Truth or not, Nami didn't like the idea of anyone actually leaving children alone on an island to fend for themselves. That was just irresponsible. Or maybe it was all in Luffy's imagination. It could be. There was no way a pirate crew would keep kids on their ship, unless it was to use them for their own needs.

"Mr. Guardian, saved the island by throwing lots of water on the fire."

"Who's Mr. Guardian?" Usopp asked.

"The sea king that watches our island for us."

Ok. Definitely more of Luffy's fantasy stories. Nami giggled at the wild imagination her captain had. It was cute, unlike Usopp's. She really needed to get him to stop telling tall tales though. It was bound to get them in trouble one of these days. Especially if he kept bringing big named pirates into it.

-*/

"I see an island," Usopp called out one afternoon.

"How does it look?" Nami asked coming up to next to him.

"I don't know. I just see a lot of trees," he said, handing her the binoculars.

"Hmm. No point in going to an island that doesn't have anything," Nami said as she scanned the island with the binoculars, looking for any hint of civilization.

"We should go," Luffy said from behind them where he had been napping with Zoro. He looked too excited to have just woken up. "We can explore the island. It'll be an adventure."

"And maybe we can scare up some ingredients. It wouldn't hurt to stock up," Sanji said, coming out from the kitchen. "Snacks are ready."

"Yeah! Snack! Snack! Sanji's snack!" Luffy sang as he got up to go to the kitchen, tripping over Zoro's leg in his hurry, waking the swordsman in the process. The swordsman ended up going back to sleep after some grumbling.

Nami shrugged, agreeing with Sanji that they should restock on whatever they could get on the island. She steered the ship towards the island, knowing that Sanji would bring her portion of snacks to her.

After reaching the island, Nami and Sanji stayed behind to watch over the ship, letting the rest go explore. Luffy was the first to go, rocketing himself off the ship before they even properly set anchor.

"Hopefully they find a market or at least bring back something edible," Nami said to herself. "Then at we wouldn't have to worry about being low on food."

"Don't you worry, Nami-san. If those idiots don't bring back anything, I'll personally make sure you have enough to eat," Sanji practically melted at the thought of being left alone with Nami.

It didn't take long before they were startled by a loud noise and the shaking of the island. It was followed up by roars of animals. "I'll go start on dinner," Sanji said, turning towards the kitchen, not at all disturbed by the noises of the island.

At least there wasn't any screaming. Usopp's didn't count.

Nami joined him in ignoring the crazy by going through her map and plotting their next route.

Sanji was just putting the finishing touches on dinner when he heard Usopp's screams getting louder along with the sounds of wild animals. He walked out to see Nami already at the rail working her mouth to say something but nothing came out. So he went to stand next to her to see what had her tongue tied.

"What the hell are you shitty idiots doing?!" he screeched at the sight of what was going on.

It looked like the all the wild animals on the island had come out of the forest chasing Usopp with Zoro chasing the horde behind them. Where was the shitty captain? Sitting on a tiger, having the time of his life, of course.

"Sanji, which one do you want?" Luffy called out laughing. "We didn't know which one you'd want, so we brought them all."

"Oh. Well, then. I'll take that one, that one, that one, that one, and that one," Sanji answered, relieved that they weren't just playing around. Having a variety of meat would be nice. He turned his head towards Nami to let her know that dinner was ready, only to find out that the scene off the ship wasn't what had her tongue tied, It was whatever was in the newspaper that had caught her eyes. He peered over her shoulder to see what caught her attention.

It was a wanted poster that came with the day's paper. He gave a whistle at the amount given.

The sound brought Nami out of her shock. "WHAT'S WITH THIS INSANE AMOUNT!?" she shrieked. She quickly scanned through the newspaper to find the article on Luffy for an explanation.

Sanji went back to looking over the rail to see the animals he picked had been dealt with and the rest of the animals had retreated back to the jungle in fear. Poor Usopp was on the ground panting and whining at the other two for using him as bait, while Luffy was laughing at him. He decided to go down to help them bring everything back onto the ship.

Once they were done chopping up the pieces to make them more manageable and putting everything in storage, Nami grabbed Luffy by the front of his tank top to rant.

"How does defeating a marine captain, Don Krieg, and Arlong equate to this amount as a first bounty?!"

"Ooo. It went up?" Luffy said, and he smiled at his new bounty when it was shoved in his face.

"Up? Up?! UP! WHAT DO YOU MEAN UP? WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?! We're doomed!" she cried. With a bounty that high, they were bound to run into greedy bounty hunters and strong marines.

Usopp and Zoro were now crowded around them to see the new wanted poster. It was a picture taken at Nami's village, with Luffy wearing Sabo's outfit and his strawhat without the top hat hiding it.

"Let's see 'Strawhat Luffy, Children of Hell: L?' What's with the question mark after L? 'Dead or Alive, 110 million beli,'" Usopp read, his voice rising in volume as he read.

"Impressive," Zoro grinned at the thought of stronger opponents going after them.

"Impressive or not, that's too high for a first bounty from East Blue. Isn't the average bounty around 3 million? That would make Luffy the highest bounty in East Blue after Arlong," Usopp said with wide eyes.

"Yes, but Arlong was originally from Grand Line," Nami sighed, finally letting go of Luffy.

Luffy took the poster to admire it and chuckled, completely ignoring what they were all saying.

"Are you listening?" Nami pulled at his ear. "What did you do to get a bounty that high?"

"Ow. That hurts," he held his ear after it was snapped back. "I did a lot of things, usually with my brothers, though. We raided marine bases, fought marines, made marines mad, you know, pirate stuff."

"Raided marine bases?" Sanji asked. Why would anyone want to raid a marine base? Normally, one would fight marines going after them but to raid a base?

Luffy turned to Sanji to tell his story proudly, "Yeah! We were hungry and didn't have any money on us. So we went to the nearest base and snuck in to eat all their food. No one even knew we were there until we cleaned out the kitchen," he laughed.

Nami brought her hand to her face in exasperation, wondering when she'd get a real answer from him, rather than the imaginary tales he liked to tell. Usopp must be rubbing off on him.

-*/

"All right, everyone," Nami called out to the crew. "We're nearing the next island, the last island before we get into Grand Line, Polestar. More specifically, we'll be docking at the main town there, Loguetown, also known as the town of the beginning and the end. It's where Gold Roger was born and executed. Meaning," she gave Luffy a meaningful look, "there will be more marines here than anywhere else we've been. There's a marine base, so we'll have to be even more careful to not be caught before we make it to Grand Line. From there, it's Reverse Mountain, then Grand Line."

Luffy cheered at the prospect of being in his home sea soon.

Nami punched him in the head to get him to calm down. "Because _someone_ here for some odd reason has a huge bounty, we'll have to be extra cautious. That means you, Luffy," she pointed at him. "Put this on before you even leave the ship and make sure to keep your face covered." She handed him a long thin black coat with a hood.

He immediately gave it to Zoro to help him put it on. The back of the coat had an image of a strange smiley face with spokes sticking out. It reminded the crew of a cheery, yet creepy, sun. Oddly enough, there was a straw hat on the face that looked like it was a new addition.

If that was the symbol for another pirate, it wasn't one that Sanji recognized.

"Isn't that a problem?" Usopp asked Nami, pointing to where Luffy was walking away from them. The end of the coat was dragging a good foot behind him.

Their captain then turned around to show off his coat, only to step on a corner of the coat and trip.

"Yeah, that is a problem," Nami said thoughtfully. "The sleeves are long, too. I think I can fix that."

"No. I'm talking about the straw hat on the back," Usopp turned Luffy around to show her.

"Yeah, I saw that, but this was the only thing I could find that would properly conceal his face without covering too much and looking suspicious," she said before going to her room. She came out to see Usopp rolling up the sleeves for Luffy and went up to them to put the finishing touch on the outfit.

"Here," she said as she tied a sash over the coat to hold it up high enough so that it didn't drag. "Now, don't forget to cover your face when you get off the ship." She pulled the hood over his head. "I don't want any trouble getting off the island. It's going to be a pain as is to get through Reverse Mountain without having to escape from marines, too."

"I can't wait til we get there. I want to see where Roger lived and the execution site," Luffy said as he ran around excitedly.

The rest of the crew just hoped that they could do some shopping in peace. Nami had planned on getting more paper and ink for her maps. Usopp wanted to look around to see if there was anything cool he could add to his arsenal. Zoro needed new swords to replace the ones that broke in his fight with Mihawk. Sanji was going to see if he could find some spices to replenish his stock, and of course, more importantly, woman hunting.

Once they finally made it, Nami fixed his hood and warned him once more to keep his face hidden before letting him go.

Luffy wasn't sure where the execution stand was, but that wasn't a problem. He'd just have to explore the whole place to find it. It was already exciting just to be in the same town Gol D. Roger was born in.

As much fun as it was to wonder where the Pirate King did this and that, Luffy was getting tired of walking around and not finding the execution stand. So he wasn't sure if he was lucky or not when he literally ran into someone. Seeing as the other person was taller and more muscular, Luffy was the one to fall backward.

"You okay there, kid?" the man bent over to help him up.

Luffy remembered at the last minute to pull his hood back over his head before taking the man's hand. "I'm okay. That didn't hurt," he answered as he dusted his bottom. "Oh yeah. Do you know how I can get to the execution site?"

Smoker narrowed his eyes at the excited kid, wondering why he was trying to hide his face. "Execution site? Why would you want to go there?"

"I want to see what the Pirate King saw before he died," Luffy looked up to him as he answered with wide, bright eyes.

The marine captain caught a glimpse of a scar under the left eye before the boy looked around as if he could see the execution stand from there. He wasn't sure what it was, but there was something about this kid.

"You won't see it from here." Smoker's lip twitched in amusement when Luffy visibly deflated. "Go in the direction of the smoke, and you'll find it," he used his Devil's Fruit ability to point Luffy in the right direction. He'd take the kid there himself if he could, but he had a pirate to catch. There was a rumor that Monkey D. Luffy would be on this island.

Luffy looked up at the cigar, which kind of reminded him of Uncle Vista, and saw the smoke flowing behind the man. "Thanks!" It wasn't long before he took off running. There was only so much exploring one could do without an adventure before it got boring.

In his excitement, he didn't even notice he ran past Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, and Nami.

"Was that Luffy?" Nami asked, looking towards where she thought she saw Luffy running.

"Yeah," Zoro said, narrowing his eyes towards an alleyway across from them.

"We may need to set sail soon," Sanji said, tossing all his purchases to Usopp, catching on to what Zoro saw.

"You guys get the ship ready, we'll be there as soon as we get that idiot," Zoro said as he and Sanji took off after Luffy.

Usopp and Nami exchanged a confused look before running back towards the ship to do as they were told. It never hurt to be prepared, and with their track record, Luffy was bound to do something stupid enough to have them running for their lives.

Sure enough, there were armed marines running in the direction Luffy went. They picked up their pace, hoping the marines hadn't gotten to their ship yet.

"We better hurry," Nami said as she looked to the sky. "The air has changed. A storm is coming."

-*/-*/-*/

Luffy finally made it to the execution stand as it started to rain. He made it all the way to the top and looked down and around to see what the Pirate King saw before he died, completely ignoring the yells for him to get down. He wondered if Ace and Sabo came to see this before going home.

In his excitement, he didn't realize there was someone else up there with him. He barely had time to dodge the sword that came down towards his head.

"Hmm? Who are you again?" Luffy asked. He remembered seeing the big red nose before but couldn't put a name to the funny face.

"How dare you forget my flashy self?! I am Buggy! Buggy the Clown!" the clown screamed, swinging his sword again.

Luffy dodged this swing as well but slipped on the wet platform. Buggy took this chance to kick the young captain then lock him in a wooden restraint.

Luffy stretched his neck and pulled at his hands, but he couldn't get out. His hood had come off, showing his face to everyone there, including the marines hidden around the plaza.

"Behold!" Buggy shouted to the audience he had in the plaza. He had all his crew stop them from running away from the show. "A most super flashy execution is about to begin! You should feel honored, Straw Hat. You get to die in the same place as the late Pirate King."

"Oh yeah!" Luffy said, remembering who the clown was, carefree of what was about to happen. "You're that clown!"

"You're just now remembering in this situation?" Buggy exclaimed.

"Oh, look. It's Sanji and Zoro," Luffy said as he saw his crewmates in the plaza below, fighting Buggy's Pirate crew to get to him. "Zoro! Sanji!" he called out and waved at them, only to be yelled at in return.

"You stupid captain! Get yourself out of there and let's go!" They both yelled.

"How dare you flashily ignore me! Today, I will have my revenge. You will flashily die for my humiliation!" Buggy seethed.

"Die?" Luffy said humorously, eying Buggy above him. "You can't kill me, and I won't die here. I'M THE MAN WHO'LL BE THE PIRATE KING!" He shouted then started laughing loudly.

Zoro and Sanji looked up in shocked confusion, wondering what their crazy captain was going to do now. Their eyes widened in fear when Buggy swung his sword down in anger.

Everyone on the ground had to shade their eyes when a blinding blue and gold light flew over them and crashed into the scaffold the same time lightning struck it, bringing the whole structure down and burning it to a crisp.

Zoro and Sanji blinked to clear the spots from their eyes and were shocked when Luffy stood up from the rubble, unharmed.

"See. You can't kill me," he laughed, dusting himself.

"You idiot captain!" Zoro quickly grabbed hold of Luffy around his middle, carrying him as they ran away. "What the hell were you thinking?!"

"Hurry," Sanji said running alongside them. "There are marines swarming the place."

"But -"

"We have to hurry and get off this island," Sanji glared at his captain. "Nami-san is already on the ship, getting it ready for us to leave."

"'Kay," Luffy said, obediently staying still for Zoro to carry him and fight the marines in their way with one sword. It wasn't easy, but luckily, these marines were just small fries. The swordsman wasn't going to risk letting Luffy run on his own. Who knew what craziness he'd pull.

They were soon stopped by a woman with a sword blocking their way.

"Woah! Who's this lady?" Sanji cried out in joy.

"So you're Roronoa Zoro, a pirate. You lied to me, didn't you," she accused.

"What?!" Sanji stopped to yell at Zoro. "What did you do to her?"

Zoro ignored the cook and walked a couple steps towards her. "You never asked my name. I didn't lie to you." He finally let Luffy go so he could concentrate on the opponent before him. There was no way he'd be able to defeat her with just one sword. He was going to need both hands.

When she attacked, he stopped her sword and held it there. "You guys go on ahead. I'll catch up with you soon. Go!"

"You better not hurt her, you shitty moss head," Sanji yelled before he continued running dragging Luffy with him.

They didn't get far when thick smoke surrounded them before it went past. Sanji stopped in confusion and let go of Luffy to get ready for an ambush.

His captain took this chance to turn around, following the strong presence that stopped behind them. Instead, he tripped on his coat that was too loose and long on him. The sash that was tying it up had fallen during their run.

There was a yelp, causing Sanji to turn and see his captain on the ground while a man with white hair poked a jute into Luffy's chest.

"Gah! Sea stone," Luffy said, not bothering to struggle to get free. "Oh. Hi. Thanks for the help before."

"What? Sea stone?" Sanji said, confused as to why and how a marine helped Luffy.

"I see. A fruit user. To a fruit user, sea stone is like a solid form of the sea, a weakness for all Devil Fruit users," the man said. "The name's Smoker, the captain of the marine base here. If I knew you were Straw Hat Luffy earlier, I would have arrested you then."

The kick Sanji delivered went right through the man, smoke appearing where his leg went through.

Zoro saw what was happening and quickly knocked Tashigi out and the rest of the marines that were watching. He wasn't sure if he could make it to them in time.

"I ate the Moku Moku Fruit. I'm made of smoke. You won't be able to land a hit." Smoker sent a fist at Sanji to push him away, so he could arrest Luffy without interruption.

"Hi," Luffy smiled, looking behind Smoker, startling the Marine.

A hand was on top of the jute over his own, pulling it up slightly. Smoker looked back to see who dared to interrupt as he struggled to pull his weapon back. His grip slackened in surprise at seeing who was under the hood.

Luffy wiggled free and was about to dust himself off, when he was grabbed by the wrist and pulled away from the mess. "This way," another hooded person said, dragging him away. Confused, Zoro and Sanji followed, hoping this person was on their side. Luffy had to use one hand to gather up the coat so it wouldn't drag and get even more dirty, or worse, rip.

Once the other person thought they were safely far enough, he stopped and pulled back his hood and smiled at Luffy. "It's been a while, Luffy."

"Jeff! You finally left your island?" Luffy laughed.

"Yeah. I did what you said and found them a year ago. It's been tough, and you were right. They're nice people. Thanks," Jeff said shyly, looking between Zoro and Sanji. Live life without regrets, right? He leaned his face toward's Luffy's.

The other two were too shocked at what was about to happen to do anything. Should they do something? But Luffy wasn't stopping it.

Before Jeff could kiss Luffy's cheek, a loud, angry screech was heard overhead. The sight of Luffy being picked up along with the other person by a large blue and gold FLAMING! bird got Zoro and Sanji out of their shock. They started running after them, shouting at the bird to drop them. Zoro had two of his swords out, ready to attack if it came towards them.

"Drop our captain, you damn bird, and fight like a man!"

"You shitty bird, come down here and be cooked like the ingredient you are!"

Luffy was laughing and having the time of his life, until the bird shook him and his other passenger in its talons. Then he was screaming in fear along with Jeff, who was screaming the whole time.

"Zoro! Sanji! Save me!" The young captain stretched his arms out of the too long sleeves to grab both of his crewmates and pulled them up in the air with him.

"What the hell are you doing?" Zoro waved his sword threateningly at him. He tried to cut the bird's legs, but his sword just went through flames.

Soon the three of them were dropped on the deck of Merry, while Jeff was still in the bird's death grip.

Nami and Usopp both screamed in fear.

"What the hell is going on?" Nami yelled from the helm. They were a good distance from the island. Far enough that she knew no one could board without them seeing their ship first.

"We're under attack! The marines are trying to burn down the ship!" Usopp wailed from the crow's nest.

Zoro and Sanji quickly got up and took in their surroundings. Luckily, they were flown over and landed on the right ship, or they wouldn't have been able to make it to the ship. Not unless Luffy slingshotted them onboard. They weren't sure if that would have been safer.

The bird then turned into a human with blond hair with its wings and talons still intact, shaking Jeff with an angry face. "I saved your ass from the duo the first time," the man seethed. "Now, I see that was a mistake. I should have let them burn you to a crisp that day-yoi."

The sight had Luffy scuttling to hide behind Zoro. "You have to hide me," Luffy whispered desperately. "He's mad."

The man then turned fully human and held Jeff down with a foot and turned to glare at Luffy, causing Zoro and Sanji to stand protectively, shielding their captain. That didn't stop the man from glaring right past them.

"And you," the man growled.

"Marco the Pheonix from Whitebeard's crew, right? Look here," Zoro said, recognizing the man and the tattoo on his chest, "we're sorry our captain used your captain's name. It wasn't like he was going around flaunting it or anything. There's no need for a fight." Man word got out fast. How the hell did a crew all the way from Grand Line hear already and get here so fast? Now was not a good time for a fight, not when they still had to worry about the marines.

Marco relaxed and raised an eyebrow at the green-haired swordsman. "It would save us a lot of worry and stress if he did go around flaunting our name. It would keep him mostly out of trouble-yoi."

"But then it wouldn't be fun," Luffy pouted, sticking his head out from behind Zoro. "Everyone would just run away. No one knows me here. It's fun."

"Wait a minute," Nami said, steering the ship towards Red Line and fighting the strong currents. "You mean, he wasn't lying? He was a part of Whitebeard?! Wait. YOU'RE THE SHINY BLUE FIRE BIRD?!"

Marco huffed a laugh at the description of himself. "Luffy can't lie to save his life. It's too obvious when he does. The problem lies in trying to figure out what he's saying-yoi. So, yes. I am the shiny blue fire bird, also known as a phoenix-yoi." He changed an arm into a wing to show them. "It's my Devil's Fruit."

He then kicked Jeff towards a hooded man who'd just appeared. "You should warn your people to keep their hands to themselves. The next time, my family will make sure he has no hands left to work with-yoi."

"Where'd you come from?" Sanji growled, a leg ready to attack. This one, he didn't recognize.

The hood was pulled back to show a dangerous looking man with a tattoo down his face. "Don't worry. I'm not an enemy," he held up his hands in surrender and grinned.

"Wait, wait. So what happened?" Usopp said, after he climbed down, sensing it was safer on the deck than up where the winds could blow him off and ran to hide behind Nami.

"Shitty captain almost got himself killed at the execution site, escaped, then got caught by a marine captain. Mr. Dangerous there, saved him, I think. That shitty kid," Sanji pointed at Jeff, "tried to kiss our shitty captain, and our shitty captain did nothing to stop him. Then Birdy, here, snatched them both up. It was just all around shitty."

"I'm not sure who I should be mad at," Nami glared at Jeff. "You for trying that with our captain or Luffy."

The tattooed man looked down at the bruised and battered Jeff. "I didn't realize you were more than just a fan of my son."

"Son?!" the Straw Hats and Jeff cried out in surprise.

"I thought he was your son," Jeff said to Marco.

"He is. They sort of adopted me. Long story short, I'm Pops, and that's Dad," Marco said, confusing them.

"Dad…wait. So you're the dragon?" Nami asked, recalling what Luffy told her.

"Close. My name is Dragon, leader of the Revolutionaries," he grinned. "It's not really a secret at the base, but I'd like to keep this a secret from the marines a little longer," he told them.

"Sanji," Nami said, nearly in tears. "Take the helm. There's so much going on here that I don't know what to be surprised about anymore."

Usopp, on the other hand, was already literally scared stiff. Not even the stormy wind could move him at this point. Not only was there a member of the World's Strongest Person's crew on their ship, but also the head of the Revolutionary Army. He was too shocked to cry with Nami. No, it was best to just run away from it all. Oh look. A beautiful field of flowers….

"Pretty goldfish?" Nami asked weakly, not really sure if she wanted to know the answer.

"Goldfish? Oh, that's Luffy's mother," Marco answered.

Dragon gave Marco a confused look. "I didn't marry a goldfish."

"No, I didn't think you did. The Queen took a liking to the kids-yoi," Marco explained with a grin.

"Queen?" Dragon asked, not understanding what the commander was talking about, a little alarmed at where this was going. As the leader of the Revolutionary Army, and Luffy's father, he'd need to know who to keep an eye out for. Not that he played favorites or anything.

"You know, married to King Neptune, who Luffy likes to call, Scruffy," Marco nearly laughed at the nickname for the King.

It took a few seconds before the information clicked. "Ah. The Queen. Yes, she was beautiful and very kind hearted," Dragon nodded in approval, secretly agreeing with the nickname.

Nami was right. She did regret asking. She didn't want to know anymore. Now there's royalty involved.

"Luffy," Marco said dangerously, when he caught the boy trying to slip away. "Don't think I've forgotten the stunt you pulled." He moved so fast that he disappeared from their sight to reappear in front of Luffy.

"I'm sorry?" Luffy asked with wide, hopeful eyes.

"No, you're not," Marco gave Luffy a haki infused punch to the head. "You could have easily gotten yourself out of that mess, and yet, you did nothing and waited for us." There went another punch. "Why?"

"Because you and dad wouldn't come out and play," Luffy said through his tears, rubbing his pained head.

Marco raised his fist to hit his son again, only to be beaten to it by Zoro. "That's for the near heart attack you gave me. Don't do that again."

Sanji came up behind Zoro to do the same. "If that jackass killed you, I'd have found a way to bring you back just to kick your head in," he growled.

"I have no idea what the hell happened out there," Nami said calmly, looking down at Luffy, who was crouched on the ground with his hands over his head, "and I don't want to know. I don't think I can handle it right now." She took a deep breath before screaming at him. "You could have at least warned us about everything else! Look at Usopp," she pointed at the long-nosed teen, "he's so shocked that he's escaped reality." She punched him for good measure. "Next time, explain things in a way we'd understand," she shook her fist at him, enjoying the fact that he was now cowering in fear from her.

She then walked over to Jeff and pummeled him with her fist. "I don't want to see you near Luffy ever again. He's our captain. You got that? OUR captain. You can't have him. He's taken," she poked him in his chest with a fist to her hip.

Sanji gave a glare to back her up, while Zoro had his hand on his now sheathed sword.

Dragon gave a laugh before raising his hand, signaling for his ride. "It seems Luffy is in good hands. This is as far as I will help. We will take our leave now." With that a large crow came to give them a ride.

Zoro looked at Marco with a raised eyebrow, expectantly.

"I still have time, so I'll be staying with you guys a bit longer,-yoi." Luffy cheered and jumped into Marco's arms. "You might want to watch where you're going," Marco said after getting Luffy settled and pointed.

Nami looked towards the front where he was pointing to see a large red rock wall coming towards them. She smacked Usopp back to his senses and gave orders so they could avoid a collision.

"I don't get it," Nami said once they were in the clear, blinking through the rain. The storm was worse closer to Red Line. "I thought we were on the right course to go straight into Reverse Mountain."

"Oh, that's probably Dragon's fault-yoi," Marco stated from his seat on the deck with Luffy in his lap, leaning back against the rails. It was like the tension of almost crashing didn't affect them.

Usopp was doing his best to ignore the person that shouldn't be there. If he wasn't acknowledged, he'd disappear.

"What do you mean?" Nami asked from the helm, staring straight ahead so they didn't get any more surprises.

Marco smirked at Usopp's obvious discomfort of him. "He gave your ship a little push to get away from Luffy's pursuers a little quicker. You shouldn't be too far off course-yoi."

"I see the light," Nami cried out.

"What's the light got to do with anything?" Usopp asked.

"That light points to the entrance of Grand Line," Nami explained. Marco nodded, impressed with her knowledge.

"Are we really going to go through in this storm?" Usopp whined.

Luffy jumped up off Marco's lap to join the rest of his crew at the front of the ship. "Of course we are!" he said excitedly. "It'll be fun!"

"All right. Let's have a little launching ceremony to commemorate the start of our journey," Sanji said as he rolled over a barrel of water.

Sanji started by putting a foot on top of the barrel once they all agreed. "To find All Blue."

"To become the Pirate King!"

"To become the greatest Swordsman."

"I want to draw a map of the world."

"I-I'm- I'm going to be a brave warrior of the sea!"

They all ignored Marco's quiet chuckle after Usopp's declaration and lifted their legs to break the barrel.

"Let's go! To Paradise!" Luffy called out.

"Yeah!"

"Wait, paradise?" Usopp asked once they'd broken the barrel.

Marco clapped from where he sat, the storm not bothering him in the least. "With that determination, you will do fine."

"L-l-liar!" Usopp pointed at him from behind Zoro, finally acknowledging the extra passenger. "You laughed. That's right! I know I'm a chicken! B-but just like my dad, the pirate flag called."

"Like I said," Marco waved him off, "you guys will do fine. I trust Luffy. He chose you for a reason, so be proud of that. He wouldn't have brought you if he didn't think you had potential. Believe in your captain."

They all looked at Luffy standing there proudly before they were in a flurry of motion once Nami spotted the entrance of Reverse Mountain.

"I question his sanity though," Sanji muttered as he ran past Marco, when he saw Luffy run to sit on the figurehead.

"And I question who exactly the captain of this ship is-yoi," Marco said with a smile, eying Nami as she snapped out commands. He got up to stand behind Luffy, to make sure he didn't fall off.

They were an odd bunch, but he could see why Luffy picked them. They worked around Luffy's lack of command and didn't seem to mind taking charge where needed. Not to mention they took Luffy's oddity up until now and treated him just as anyone at home would.

He'd leave it to the official welcoming committee to welcome them to the family. There was no way he'd be able to keep them away. He can't wait to hear how it goes.

 **Omake**

After Dressrosa, Bartolomeo decided to quit being a mafia boss and gathered his own pirate crew, just like his role model, Luffy-sempai. He traveled all the way back to East Blue to convince and recruit his group to follow him.

It was fate that brought him and Luffy to Loguetown on the same day. He was so excited that he couldn't go near the blinding light that was Luffy-sempai!

Even better, his whole crew got to see how awesome Luffy-sempai was! The calm, noncaring laugh in the face of death. Then the miraculous escape! Was there nothing his hero couldn't do? Luffy-sempai was just pure awesomeness!

The Barto Club attempted to follow Going Merry when they were escaping the marines but lost them in the storm. Damn the storm for pushing them way off course.

They ended up drifting along Calm Belt for a while. Thank goodness for his experience in Grand Line and the crew that took him, otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to save Apis and his crew from the swarm of Sea Kings that tried to eat them.

Bartolomeo was going to have to train this crew if they were going to make it through Grand Line and catch up with Luffy-sempai He was not going to have them embarrass him in front of his hero.

First thing first. They had to save Apis and her dragon from those greedy marines. Why? Because that's what Luffy-sempai would have done. Luffy-sempai would never leave a friend in distress. Well, that and the fact that Erik and Nelson annoyed him.

Luckily, the power of Luffy-sempai was with him and his crew. They somehow were able to defeat those marines and leave Calm Belt. It was just too bad that Apis was too young, or Bartolomeo would have asked her to join him. She was very brave, perfect for his crew, and he was sure that Luffy-sempai would have liked her. At least he was able to regale the gloriousness of Luffy-sempai to everyone on Warship Island during his stay.

* * *

 **A/N:** Again, sorry for taking so long to update. So many things has kept me busy, and it may just be this way for a long while. Future updates may take just as long. Thank you so much for staying with me. I promise to try and update whenever I can.


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